Essay On African American Religion

During the early years of this nation’s history, America was stricken with the cancer of slavery. For nearly 250 years, indigenous Black people were kidnapped from the western shores of Africa, stripped of their culture, and robbed of their human dignity. This was the fate of indentured servitude on American soil. Slavery was the inescapable subjection of an African diaspora to uncompensated labor by the dominant white Eurocentric citizenry of a fledgling nation. In 1864, Negroes in America, now known as African Americans, were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln. However, there is a significant difference between release and freedom. Emancipation does not equate to true liberation. And unfortunately, the repercussions of the depravity of

Some of the great heroes of Black America emerge as prophetic voices in an American wilderness. Black clergymen such as Rev. Dr. Vernon Johns, Rev. Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, and Bishop Reverdy C. Ransom, used their pulpits to promote and pontificate the Black Social Gospel. These men and many others were not afraid to speak truth to the political powerbrokers of America. Additionally, Black Theology, Black Power, and later, Black Lives Matter movements all draw on the courage and commitment witnessed in the pulpit of the Black Preacher/Pastor/Prophet who stood by faith in Almighty God. Dr. Pinn notes that the Christian faith is not the only religion in the black context, but is joined by Islam as a conduit for black liberation. African American persons who professed faith as a part of the Nation of Islam, initially through its founder Master Fard Muhammad, but later through his disciple, and self-professed Apostle, Elijah Muhammad. The Nation would lead as many as 250,000 black persons, to prominence throughout the 20th