Black Church Movement

How the Black Church Changed the US The Civil Rights Movement. It has been a long time since it was a major issue. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been but there needs to be consideration of why it happened and why it was so successful. The obvious answer is people like Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa Parks, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Most of the major leaders involved in the Civil Rights Movement were either ministers or had something to do with the African-American Church. And even before then the emancipation and education of slaves were accomplished in part because of the Black Church 's participation. The Black Church was a “refuge from the larger, cruel world” where African Americans can truly express themselves and be free

African Americans in the north realized the need to help and reach out to their southern counterparts. So they sent ministers such as Daniel A. Payne and Theophilus Gould Steward to lead a massive missionary effort to the South resulting a large growth of independent black churches in the south. This also led to a drastic increase in literacy among blacks from 5% in 1870 to approximately 70% by 1900. This was huge and this also, according to Laurie Maffley-Kipp, “promoted the rise of many African American leaders who worked well outside the sphere of the church in politics, education, and other professions,” (Maffly). As Grace Communion International put it “African-American churches took up what has been their historical mission to care for the spiritual and physical needs of black people, since they were neglected and discriminated against by white society” (Kroll). While all this was happening, the women of the Black Church decided to help out in as many ways as possible. They organized social services, missionary societies, temperance associations and reading groups. Not only that they fought for social reform of all kinds like the end of racism and women 's suffrage (Mellowes). The church movement was gaining momentum in the fight for equality but it will all come to a head during the Civil

The final time and way the Black Church helped gain equality and destroy racism was through serving as an organizational place, essentially a base of operations for the Civil Rights Movement (The Black). The Black Church played a pivotal role in the protests and marches of the Civil Rights Movement. Whether in basements or crowded offices the churches made plans for many boycotts and other protesting actions (Mellowes). They helped organize carpools during the Alabama bus boycott and the auxiliaries of Siloam Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn helped schedule who and which people would be protesting the Brooklyn worksite each day (Taylor). Not only did these churches directly help the Movement most of the ministers at the time were huge leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Many reverends including the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Wyatt T. Walker, Joseph Lowery, and Jesse Jackson lead the charge in the battle for equality. They were spokespeople of the civil rights movement and they articulated the grievances and struggles that the black community had been suffering. They used a charismatic style of speech and rhetoric to convey their problems and inspire others to their cause (Taylor). The most prime example of that is in Martin Luther King Jr. speech ¨I had a Dream.¨ And with all the church 's effort came great reward and soon they gained equality for each and every