SOMETHING WITHIN: Religion in African-American Political Activism

240 Pages·1999·13.39 MB·English

by  Fredrick Harris

Something Within
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Something Within
Religion in African-American Political Activism
Fredrick C. Harris
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1999
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1999 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harris, Fredrick C.
Something within : religion in African-American
political activism / Fredrick C. Harris.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-512033-7
i. Afro-Americans—Religion. 2. Afro-Americans—Political
activity. 3. Christianity and politics—United States. I, Title.
BR563.N4H368 1999
3—-dc2i 99-28043
1 2 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
In memory of my paternal great-aunt,
Nellie Mae Harris-Mosley (1904—1992), who,
unfortunately, never "lived to see it." An
usher, deaconess, and devoted member of
the Mt. Nebo Missionary Baptist Church
in Atlanta, Aunt Nell's display of everyday
forms of resistance throughout her years
confirmed in my eyes and ears that there
is truly "something within."
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Acknowledgments
HIS PROJECT BENEFITED FROM THE SUPPORT of several individuals
and institutions. At Northwestern University, where I completed the bulk of my
research for this book as a part of my doctoral dissertation, I received research
assistance from Maisha Goss, Henry Wong, and Charisse Gardner. They assisted
me with collecting and transcribing material from observations at black churches
in Chicago and with receding data from several opinion surveys. Kathleen Bethel
of the Northwestern University Library directed me to valuable sources on
African-American religion and politics, which enhanced the scope of this book.
As chair of my dissertation committee, Jane J. Mansbridge has expressed a
keen interest in this project and has been a model dissertation advisor and col-
league. Her availability, insights, probing questions, and sustained enthusiasm
kept me focused on the potential of this book, even in its early stage as a dis-
sertation proposal. By encouraging me to incorporate qualitative material, Jenny's
intuition greatly added to my findings and allowed me to develop a greater ap-
preciation for observation as a research method. Not only did she read the dis-
sertation more than once, she read several drafts in book manuscript form, even
finding time to read one draft while in the process of moving from Evanston to
Cambridge! Aldon Morris pushed me to consider the broader theoretical impli-
cations of my research. His wisdom regarding the importance of theory in the
study of African-American life has nurtured within me an intellectual commit-
ment to theory-building in African-American politics.
Funding for the early stages of research for this book was provided by the
Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, the Aspen Institute for NonProfit
Sector Research (93-NSRF-6), the Graduate School of Northwestern University,
and Northwestern University's Department of Communications Studies, which
funded survey questions on the 1991 Chicago Area Survey that were specifically
designed for this research.
The Chancellor's Postdoctoral Program for Academic Diversity at the Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley provided me time off to work on the book at the
viii Acknowledgments
university's Survey Research Center (SRC). I would like to thank Andrea Simp-
son, who also served as a Chancellor fellow with me, and Sam Lucus and Paul
Sniderman, both SRC members, for providing me with an intellectual space to
test my ideas. I would especially like to thank Andrea, who allowed me to inter-
rupt her own work for what turned out to be a daily ritual of intellectual debate.
At the University of Rochester I benefited from the encouragement and assis-
tance of several colleagues and students. Dick Fenno, the godfather of "soaking
and poking," reinforced in me the importance of participant observation as a
research method and gave valuable advice on the ethnographic and theoretical
chapters of the book. The late Sam Nolutshungu offered insights and encour-
agement and lifted my spirits through his good sense of humor. His presence at
Rochester is sorely missed. Richard Niemi, Harold Stanley, Gerald Gamm, and
Dave Weimer commented on particular chapters. Sean Theriault, Marquitta
Speller, and Lela Sims-Gissendanner assisted me with gathering opinion surveys,
transcribing recorded material, and tracking down newspaper articles in Rush
Rhees Library.
I have also benefited from presenting my work at various stages and in dif-
ferent venues. I would like to thank the African-American Studies Program at
Loyola University of Chicago, the Workshop on Race, Ethnicity, Representation,
and Governance at Harvard University, the Department of Political Science at
the University of Washington, the Center for Political Studies' Senior Staff Sem-
inar at the University of Michigan, the Annenberg School of Communications at
the University of Pennsylvania, the Department of Political Science at Tufts Uni-
versity, the Department of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley,
and the Department of Political Science at Brown University for allowing me to
present my work. I would also like to thank Lisa Featherstone for her editorial
assistance and Kathleen Hall Jamison for bringing my manuscript to the attention
of Tom LeBien at Oxford University Press. Tasheem Lomax and Karin Garver of
the Russell Sage Foundation assisted me with final preparation of the manuscript.
I am grateful to the following for permission to reprint musical lyrics: "Fishin'
For Religion," Words and Music by Todd Thomas, © 1992 EMI BLACKWOOD
MUSIC INC. and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, All Rights controlled and Ad-
ministered by EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC, All Rights Reserved Interna-
tional Copyright Secured, Used by Permission; "Ordinary People," Words and
Music by Dannibelle Hall, © 1977 BMG SONGS, BIRDWING MUSIC, and DAN-
NIEBELLE MUSIC, All Rights Reserved International Copyright Secured, Used
by Permission; "Oh Mary Don't You Weep," Traditional, © SHATTINGER IN-
TERNATIONAL MUSIC CORP., All Rights Reserved International Copyright Se-
cured, Used by Permission; "A Rock in a Weary Land," Traditional, Adapted
and Arranged by Johnny Mercer, © 1972 WB Music Corp., WARNER BROTH-
ERS PUBLICATIONS U.S. INC., Miami, F.L. 33014, All Rights Reserved, Used
by Permission; "Ain't Got Time to Die," Traditional, Arranged by Dave Burger,
Acknowledgments ix
© 1988 Studio 224, WARNER BROTHERS PUBLICATIONS U.S. INC., Miami,
F.L. 33014, All Rights Reserved, Used by Permission.
The Johnson Publishing Co. granted permission to reproduce an illustration
by Walt Carr in the Negro Digest—"I'm sorry, Reverend—but I guess I just ran
out of cheeks to turn." I would also like to thank the University of Texas Press
for allowing me to reprint material from my article "Something Within: Religion
as a Mobilizer of African-American Political Activism" in the Journal of Politics,
56:1 (1994), pp. 42-68. Princeton University Press gave permission to reprint ma-
terial which appeared as "Religious Institutions and African-American Political
Activism" in Classifying By Race, edited by Paul E. Peterson.
This book has also been greatly enhanced by family, friends, and colleagues.
I had the good sense to follow the advice of Charles S. Bullock who talked me
out of going to law school while I was an undergraduate at the University of
Georgia. Linda F. Williams, who I worked for as a research assistant at the Joint
Center for Political and Economic Studies, "prepped" me for graduate school
and has offered keen professional advice ever since. The Friday Evening Round-
table (1989-1993), a small reading group of African-American graduate students
in the social sciences and humanities at Northwestern, provided a welcoming
reprise from university seminars while I was in graduate school. My involvement
with the Roundtable contributed enormously to my intellectual development and
granted me exposure to perspectives on politics outside the often rigid confines
of political science. I would especially like to thank Darrell Moore, now a pro-
fessor of philosophy at DePaul University, who was the moving force behind that
group and who over the years has helped me to flesh out my ideas.
Growing up I was always reminded that whatever the accomplishment, no one
ever succeeds on their own. I am indebted to an assortment of friends both in
and outside of the academy who, in their own way, enormously contributed to
this book. Father Martini Shaw, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, invited
me to several religious and political events in Chicago during the research phase
of my dissertation. Without Father Shaw's invitations I might not have gathered
much of the ethnographic material that anchors the central ideas of this book.
Don Weston, a friend from my days in Athens, Georgia, served as research as-
sistant at large. Don was kind enough to send cassette tapes of church services
and newspaper clippings of political events during his stays in New Orleans and
Detroit. Reverend D. Darrell Griffith, pastor of the Antioch Baptist Church of
Brooklyn, provided campaign materials from the 1994 National Baptist Conven-
tion and helped me to unravel the Byzantine-like practices of the Convention.
Curtis Foy, Eric Snodgrass, Waldo Johnson, Jr., Carl Walton, and Herman "Skip"
Mason urged me on and offered insights into their own experiences in black
churches.
Finally, I would like to thank my family in Atlanta and my extended family
in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. My mother, Charlene Harris, who had con-