Creating a temple and a forum: Religion, culture, and politics in the Harlem Unitarian Church, 1920--1956.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Floyd-Thomas, Juan Marcial.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History.

United States.

History.

Church history.

Black people--History.

Black people.

Religion.

0318.

0328.

0330.

0337.

Local Subjects:

0318.

0328.

0330.

0337.

Physical Description:

266 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 61-06A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

The same elements that shaped the Black experience in America as well as internationally during the early twentieth century were also integral to the formation of the Harlem Unitarian Church. By 1920, there was no overall consensus on how people of African descent---whether native-born African Americans or newly arrived Afro-Caribbean immigrants---should safeguard themselves against and ultimately resist various forms of social oppression they encountered in the United States. A Jamaican immigrant and ordained Unitarian minister named Rev. Ethelred Brown founded the Harlem Unitarian Church, the first Black Unitarian fellowship in North America, in the hopes of filling this void by offering a bold new religious alternative that would improve social conditions for Black America. Moreover, the church provided "a temple and a forum" where members of Harlem's Black intelligentsia and political circles came together in a venue that enabled them to openly express their views on the religion, culture, and politics of the day. Examining its brief history, one finds that the church was especially important for the ways it actively sought to enhance the status of Black women and the working class in modern American society. Generally speaking the church served as a unique model of Black religious, cultural, and political expression in the United States during the former half of the twentieth century. In their words and actions, the pastor and members of this church had a significant influence on the African American social and intellectual tradition in America's most renowned Black community through their interesting merger of liberal Christianity, cultural nationalism, and radical politics.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-06, Section: A, page: 2434.

Supervisor: Mary Frances Berry.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9780599821323

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.