Black Theology as Mass Movement PDF
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Black Theology as Mass Movement Other books by the Author The Souls of Poor Folk The Awe and the Awful Black Theology as Mass Movement Charles Lattimore Howard BLACK THEOLOGY AS MASS MOVEMENT Copyright © Charles Lattimore Howard, 2014. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-37279-6 All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-47629-9 ISBN 978-1-137-36875-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137368751 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: April 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 C O N T E N T S Foreword vii Acknowledgments xiii A Letter to Future Black Liberation Theologians 1 One Awakening the Sankofa Bird: The Movement- Centric Origins of Black Liberation Theology 5 Two The Underground Railroad and Underground Rap: Imagining an Underground Black Liberation Theology 25 Three Black Stars: Learning Movement Making from Marcus Garvey and the UNIA 53 Four Darkwater: Lessons on Movement Making from W. E. B. Du Bois 81 A Letter to My Children: Faith and Hope 93 Five Lessons from the Black Left: Socialist Inspiration and Marxian Critique 95 Six Outward Commitments: Imagining a Black Public Theology 113 Seven A Homeless Black Liberation Theology: Lessons from the Street Church Movement, Trinitarian Theology, and the Rev. Dr. Debbie Little 121 vi Contents Eight Lessons from Professor Charles Xavier: Black Liberation Theology and the X-Men 147 A Letter to Those Who Raised Me Theologically: On Running with the Baton and Letting Nas Down 153 Afterword: A Question 159 Notes 163 Bibliography 179 Index 185 F O R E W O R D “You’re working on a book? Wonderful! And what is the book going to be about?” I respond with just three words; “Black Liberation Theology.” “Oh. I see. Interesting. And what exactly is Black Liberation Theology?” they reply. Very few individuals outside of seminaries, divinity or theo- logical schools, or religious studies departments have ever heard of Black Liberation Theology. Even fewer could begin to explain it. And therein lies the problem. Well a part of the problem. I will never forget my first experience reading this particu- lar stream of theology while in seminary. Many of my classes in college focused on Black history, yet only occasionally did they intersect with the Black religious experience(s) or Black theological reflection. When they did, it was almost always while discussing the US struggle for civil rights and in the con- text of Black religious social leadership. This is of course an extremely important part of Black religious history and indeed Black Liberation Theology, but only one part. Sitting in my seminary dorm room I was struck for two rea- sons by the theology that I was reading. First, it was a profound experience for me as a student to be assigned and then to read scholarly works by women and men who looked like me. This was no small detail for a young seminarian who up to that point viii Foreword had only read the works of White theologians (both historical and contemporary). Yet it was more than the skin tone of the authors that grabbed me. It was their courage, their belief that society could be moved and positively changed, and that theol- ogy and religious spaces had an important role to play in that. These Black theologians thought that theology could speak to every aspect of society and every system that contributed to the oppression of marginalized peoples. Why was I only just finding these books—some of which had been in print longer than I had been alive? Working in the campus bookstore, I used my employee discount to read not only the Black theologians on the store’s shelves, but every- thing that was connected to Liberation Theology and any text that sought to apply theological reflection to progressive action. Needless to say I had very little money left after payday. I remember telling friends and family members about what I was studying and the same was true then as it is today—very few people had heard of the names and texts that I was drop- ping. Neither church folks nor Black folks. There are reasons for this that are explored in the pages that follow. Yet, this text is meant to be more than an explanation for the distance between much of the Black theological work produced and the majority of individuals who are living under the oppression that most Black theological work is tackling. Here I seek to explain why making this reconnection is important and I try to explore the good that may result if this reconnection is made. And I say reconnection because it was not always like this. Black Liberation Theology was not always something domi- nated by scholars who are writing and producing scholarship mostly for and in dialogue with their peers. In its origins and in the work of those whom I describe as Black theological precursors like African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Bishop Henry McNeal Turner or the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Chaplain General George McGuire, Black theological reflection was integrally connected to mass Foreword ix movement efforts for liberation.1 And if Black Liberation Theology can get back there—or better yet get to a new place with a greater consciousness of where we came from, I believe some amazing things can happen. I love Black Theology.2 After sharing an early draft of this text with an early reviewer, their response was from a defensive posture as if I was attacking Black Theology. Their defensive- ness resulted from the incorrect perception that I was setting up a (false) dichotomy between scholars and activists. The reviewer thought that I was critiquing Black theologians for not “getting out there” or for not being a part of the struggle. This is incor- rect for several reasons, chief among them being that academic work is most certainly activist work. As someone who works in the academy myself, I bear witness to this every single day. Be it the tireless daily work in the classroom, the critical work done on committees striving to increase access for people of color, women, poor people, and others who are marginalized, or the unseen but just as important one on one mentoring that happens on university and seminary campuses, academic work is most certainly activist work and I would be and often am in conversation with friends who are more prone to demonstrat- ing, the first one to say so. History demonstrates that change very often results from the power of ideas. Working through ideas and through classroom engagement is just as powerful as the work done by those who faithfully protest and demonstrate against injustice, who risk getting arrested, who lobby and pressure political leaders for change in policy, who organize through nonprofit work, or those who impact their commu- nities through their religious spaces. It is just a different work done on a different front. Yet our work in the academy can do more. It should do more. Long ago, it did do more and I imagine it will soon do more. Black Theology as Mass Movement, seeks to challenge current and future Black theologians and all readers to remember the earliest days and “prior stages” of the development of Black
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