fm the african american church in birmingham, alabama, 1815-1963 a shelter in the storm

216 Pages·2002·8.09 MB·English

A F R I C A N
A M E R I C A N
HISTORY A N D
CULTURE
edited by
GRAHAM RUSSELL HODGES
COLGATUEN IVERSITY
A GARLAND SERIES
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN
CHURCH IN
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA,
1815-1963
WILSON FALLIN, JR.
GARLAND PUBLISHING, INC.
NEWY ORK & LONDON/ 1997
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
Copyright O 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fallin, Wilson, 1942-
The African American church in Birmingham, Alabama,
1815-1963 : a shelter in the storm 1 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
p. cm. - (Studies in African American history and
culture)
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctora1)-
University of Alabama, 1995.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8153-2883-4 (alk. paper)
1. Afro-American churches-Alabama-Birmingham.
2. Afro-Americans-Alabama-Birmingham-Religion.
3. Birmingham (A1a.)-Church history. I. Title. 11. Series.
BRS63.N4F27 1997
277.61'78108'08996073-dc21 97-10603
Printed on acid-free, 250-year-life paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
I dedicate this book to my dear wife, Barbara, my children, and my
parents. Without their patience and love it would not have been
possible.
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter I Slavery, Religion, and African American
Churches
Chapter I1 Migration and the Formation of African
American Churches in the New South City
of Birmingham
Chapter I11 Expansion and African American Church Life
Chapter IV Leadership, Institution Building and
the African American Church in Birmingham
Chapter V The African American Church Between
the World Wars: Continuity and Preservation
Chapter VI The African American Church Between
the World Wars: Communism and
New Religious Responses
Chapter VII Rising Militancy and the African
American Church From World War I1 to
the Civil Rights Movement
Chapter VIII The Afiican American Church and
the Civil Rights Movement
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
Preface
In 1963, the Civil Rights movement reached a climax in
Birmingham, Alabama. Several journalists covering the events focused
on the importance of the African American church for providing the
spiritual culture, charismatic leadership, and organization that made the
movement possible. However, well before the civil rights movement, the
church was the cornerstone institution in the African American
community in Birmingham, providing not only worship but also social,
economic, political, and educational needs. So important was the church
that it is difficult to imagine the African American community without
it. This book is a study of the African American church in Birmingham
beginning with the days of slavery in pioneer Jones Valley through the
civil rights movement in the city.
This study would not have been possible without the support,
assistance, and encouragement of many persons. First and foremost, I
must acknowledge the role of my major professor, Robert J. Norrell,
who suggested the topic and directed it. His criticism, prodding, and
encouragement were indispensable in getting me to the end of this long
project.
I am also indebted to Justin Fuller, my friend and mentor. It was
professor Fuller who inspired me to engage in graduate studies and who
constantly encouraged me. As the former chair of the department of
social sciences at the University of Montevallo, he provided me with the
flexible teaching schedule that allowed adequate time for research. My
other colleagues in the history department were most encouraging.
Professor Ruth Truss took time from her busy schedule to read portions
of the manuscript and made helpful suggestions.
A number of persons assisted me in the research, most of which
was done in the Southern History Section and the Department of
Archives at the Birmingham Public Library. Several staff persons,
including Anne Knight, Yvonne crukpler, Diane Gregg, Francine
Cooper, Elizabeth Wilauer, and Delores Jones, assisted me in many
ways as did archivists Marvin Y. Whiting, Don Veasey, Jim Murray,
and Jim Baggett. On my many visits, Dr. Whiting listened to my ideas
and directed me to the proper sources.
The love and support of my family made this project possible and
bearable. Special thanks to my wife, Barbara, children, and parents for
their support and encouragement. There are others who are not named
here but none are forgotten. Thank you all.
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
Introduction
Historians agree that the African American church has played a
vital role in African American life in the United States. Primarily a
religious institution but much more because of the restrictions imposed
on African Americans, the Afiican American church provided many
functions. A rehge in a hostile world, a promoter of business, a sponsor
of education, a dispenser of benevolence, the church has also been the
major preserver of Afiican American culture. In the 1950s and 1960s the
African American church and its pastors led the civil rights movement
that destroyed legal segregation in the United States.
Through the years, a few scholars from various disciplines have
attempted general studies of the Afiican American church. Among
sociologists, W.E.B. DuBois and his Atlanta University students
examinedthe church in 1903, Benjamin Mays and Joseph Nicholson in
1933, and E. Franklin Frazier in 1955. Among historians, the pioneer
work was by Carter G. Woodson in 1921. More recently C. Eric
Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya in 1990 wrote a general study.
Woodson's book lacked the benefit of modern scholarship and the recent
study by Lincoln and Mamiya tended to be more thematic than a
historical analysis. Other studies have been denominational histories,
monographs on particular subjects, or biographies of significant
personalities. A comprehensive historical study of the AEcan American
church remains unwritten.
One major reason for the lack of a comprehensive study has been
the lack of local historical studies. Local studies are essential, providing
the building blocks for a comprehensive history. Except for a few
articles, the most ambitious attempt has been David Tucker's book,
Black Pastors and Leaders: Memphis, 1819-1972. Tucker's book,
however, focuses primarily on leadership and does not discuss other
aspects of the Afiican American church in Memphis.
This study attempts to fill a gap in the historiography of the Afiican
American church by analyzing the role and place of the African
American church in one city, Birmingham, Alabama. It traces the roles
and hctions of the church fiom the arrival of Mican Americans as
slaves in the early 1800s to 1963, the year that the civil rights movement
reached a peak in the city.
Afiican American religion and the church in Birmingham began
with the coming of the first Afiican American slaves to the area of Jones
Valley,which today includes the city of Birmingham. These slaves
Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
developed a Christianity which was a merger of African and evangelical
elements that gave them hope and security. Mer slavery these ex-
slaves established the first Afirican American churches in the area. When
the city of Birmingham was founded, African Americans migrated in
large numbers seeking economic opportunities. They found jobs, but
they also encountered a caste system that segregated and oppressed
them. Thus, as Afirican Americans moved into Birmingham, they formed
churches that served as a shelter in the midst of this racist storm. The
African American church had been the source of comfort and strength
in the rural South where they had lived. African Americans sought to
satisfy the same needs through their churches in Birmingham.
The churches formed in Birmingham served many needs for these
African American migrants. It was a spiritual community where they
garnered hope, self-esteem, and worth. Through the churches African
Americans organized secular institutions to meet their temporal needs.
Pastors provided protest and leadership almost from the beginning of the
African American immigration into the city. This protest role
accelerated after World War 11, reaching a peak in 1956 when a group
of pastors, led by the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, formed the Alabama
Christian Movement for Human Rights with the purpose of destroying
segregation through direct action and legal means. This movement
invited Martin Luther King, Jr., to the city in 1963, and King led
massive demonstrations that culminated in greater rights for African
Americans in Birmingham and the nation.
Several themes are dominant and appear throughout this study.
Afirican Americans in Birmingham developed and maintained a unique
version of Christianity that sustained them in a hostile and racist society.
This uniqueness had its origins in the religion of the slaves who
migrated into the area in the early 1800s. Refusing to accept the religion
of their masters, slaves in Jones Valley developed a Christianity that
was a merger of African and evangelical elements. African American
religion was highly emotional with much dancing, shouting, singing, and
chanting preaching. Slaves emphasized Old Testament characters such
as Moses and Joshua, whom God had used to deliver the Israelites from
slavery. As God had delivered the Israelites, he would in time deliver
them. Former sharecroppers from the rural South moved to Birmingham
in large numbers with a similar religious orientation. This unique
Christianity was the center and basis of their spiritual life. It gave hope
and meaning in a city whose white population sought to restrict and
dehumanize them. It was this unique Christianity, boosted by the
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Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
emergence of gospel music, that sustained Afiican Americans in the
depression years of the 1930s when unemployment rates among them
soared to 75 percent. During the 1950s and 1960s their religion
motivated and sustained the Birmingham civil rights movement.
The church as the central institution in the Mican American
community of Birmingham is clearly evident in this study. The rigid
segregation that developed in the city relegated blacks to a separate and
unequal status and denied them access to political and other secular
institutions. The church provided not only spiritual solace but also a
social environment in which African Americans could assemble and
could cooperate to improve their lives. In the community, the church
was the meeting place and social center. Through the church, African
Americans built institutions such as schools, banks, insurance
companies, and welfare organizations. Mican Americans in the city
showed their loyalty to their churches by supporting them and, in many
instances, building large and commodious buildings for worship.
This study also highlights the role of women, a role that has often
been neglected in Afiican American church history. This study shows
their significance in the life of Birmingham's Afiican American
churches. Women made up the majority of the membership of all
churches. In addition, women founded churches, and were the chief
fundraisers, youth workers, and missionary leaders. The civil rights
movement utilized women in roles similar to their roles in the church.
Although the role of women was circumscribed in most mainline
Afiican American churches, there is no evidence that women openly
objected to their traditional roles. The move of some women in the
1920s and 1930s to Pentecostal and Holiness churches where they
became ministers and pastors seems to reflect that at least a small group
of women wanted leadership positions beyond those allowed by
tradition. These women appear to have moved to these churches without
trying to pressure the mainline churches. In any case, it is clear that
without women there would have been no African American churches
in Birmingham.
The leadership of pastors is another major theme of this study.
From the beginning of Afiican American migration to Birmingham,
pastors assumed a leadership role. They had a natural constituency
through their church membership, were close to the people, and had an
economic independence that most Mican Americans did not have.
Their leadership was symbiotic in that they often represented the
thinking of their congregations and took their cues from them. With the
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Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.
emergence of militancy which grew during World War 11, pastors in
Birmingham began to call for the immediate end of segregation. And
this new militancy of pastors led to the formation of the civil rights
movement in Birmingham.
What emerges in this study is the church as the backbone of the
African American community in Birmingham. Truly African American
in origin, it provided the spiritual cohesiveness and the secular
institutions that sustained Mican Americans in the city. It is not
surprising that the church would be the institution that would provide
leadership through its pastors to destroy legal segregation in
Birmingham.
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Copyright 1997 Wilson Fallin, Jr.