Key Concepts
This institution historically served as both a religious center and a political organizing space in Black communities.
The Black Church
This religion was introduced to enslaved Africans by slaveholders and missionaries.
Christianity
This civil rights leader used Christian teachings to promote nonviolent protest.
MLK Jr.
In the late 1960s, many activists began questioning whether patience and nonviolence were slowing progress toward this goal.
Civil rights / racial equality
The broadcast took place during a period when many activists were questioning this strategy.
Nonviolent protest
System where beliefs, rituals and practices are organized through institutions like churches and clergy.
Religion
Religion during slavery sometimes encouraged believers to wait for justice from this source.
God
Black churches often served as meeting places for organizing this type of event.
Civil Rights Protest
The television discussion clip shown in class reflected growing frustration among activists during this historical period.
The Civil Rights Era / late 1960s
The televised discussion focused on tensions between nonviolent activism and this approach.
Militancy
This concept refers to a personal connection with the sacred or divine outside formal institutions.
Spirituality
Enslaved Africans often held secret worship gatherings known as these.
Invisible Institutions / Hush Harbors
Civil rights churches often helped organize this effort to increase Black political participation.
Voter registration
Religon has only limited African American resistance movements
False
In what city was the televised discussion clip from Public Broadcast Laboratory filmed?
Chicago
A religious focus on justice, equality and social change rather than only preparing for the afterlife.
Liberation
Spirituals often referenced this biblical figure who led the Israelites out of slavery.
Moses
Movement that arrived after The Civil Rights Era that criticized religious passivity
Black Power Movement
Some activists argued that religious teachings emphasizing patience and heavenly reward encouraged this behavior instead of immediate resistance.
Passivity
The video clip shown in the presentation came from a broadcast series called this.
“Black Power – White Backlash”
Religious belief emphasizing patience, suffering, and heavenly reward
Endurance Theology
These songs sung during slavery often contained religious messages and hopes for liberation.
Spirituals
Many leaders in the Civil Rights Movement held this profession.
Pastor / minister
What was our debate question? Don't have to be verbatim but use key terms in your explanation that we used.
Across slavery, segregation, and the post–Civil Rights era, has the theological emphasis on suffering and heavenly reward limited Black communities’ potential for collective political militancy, or has religion equipped them with a unique moral framework for resistance and social change?
This theologian is considered the founder of Black Liberation Theology and argued that “God is on the side of the oppressed.”
James H. Cone