Description

Practicing religions indigenous to West Africa, many African and African American slaves in the New World came to adopt the tenets of Christianity in the eighteenth century. Eventually, many African Americans would come to practice a Christianity which blended both faiths, giving rise to the black church throughout the South. In this informative volume, author Stephen Currie surveys the history of the African American religious experience from the seventeenth century to the present day. Chapters discuss how the black church became the cornerstone of communities coping with racism and segregation during Jim Crow, and how churches often acted as the think tanks and rallying points for African Americans fighting during the Civil Rights era. The volume also delves into the rising influence of Islam in galvanizing the Black Nationalist movement in the 1960s, and the state of religion in the African American community today.