Cultural dimensions of collective action -- History of activist religious interpretation -- Church culture and sociopolitical movements during Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction -- Social activism preceding the desegregation movement in Little Rock -- Religion's effect on mobilizing civil rights protest -- Culture's centrality in African-American women's civil rights activism -- Theoretical conclusions
Summary
Civil Rights -- Religious History-- & What role did religion play in sparking the call for civil rights? Was the African American church a motivating force or a calming eddy? The conventional view among scholars of the period is that religion as a source for social activism was marginal, conservative, or pacifying. Not so, argues Johnny E. Williams. Focusing on the state of Arkansas as typical in the role of ecclesiastical activism, his book argues that black religion from the period of slavery through the era of segregation provided theological resources that motivated and sustained preachers
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 162-171) and index
