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How Did Hudgins Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

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When any form of activism arises, people respond to it differently. The Civil Rights Movement is no exception The one group that aggravated Martian Luther King Jr and other Civil Rights activists were white moderates. Many of the white moderates were Christians. While King saw the movement as a Christian driven mission, many whites were moderate, because of their religious beliefs. Douglas Hudgins was a white moderate, and a powerful pastor in Mississippi. Reverend Hudgins believed religion was only about keeping the soul pure for the sake of salvation, and this formed his opinions about black people, church, and preforming good deeds. Many people in the Civil Rights Movement were compelled to action because of religion. They thought there was a connection between the message of the gospel and their fight for equality. Other people felt that they were being called by God to protect their local area from the sins of the world, including people who were visiting for the sake of civil rights. Both of these forms of action were based on each group’s interpretation of Christianity. Reverend Hudgins had a different interpretation of Christianity from both of these groups. Hudgins believed religion was about individual salvation and keeping your affairs …show more content…

Hudgins believed in the biblical justification for the inferiority of African Americans. This idea was that African Americans were descendants of Ham and therefore were cursed like Ham to a life of serving the white race. This meant that African Americans were not pure in the way Hudgins felt Christian had to be for salvation, and mingling with African Americans could lead towards white Christians becoming impure. This reasoning, mixed with strong feelings from his congregation, is why Hudgins upheld the resolution created by his lay leadership, that denied people of other races from worshiping at First Baptist

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Moreover, he demonstrates a divided population, one side who would offer resistance and demand change, the other side would also offer resistance to condemn the change in order to protect the existing conditions. Thus, many new interpretations came forth. For instance, some utilized the Bible to justify slavery while others used the Bible to disprove slavery. This is important as it presented or identified the religious conflict that occurred. Although, religious ideals across America’s population remained in opposition, each managed to place their mark that would proceed into the future despite the overwhelming amount of diversity that

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Auld’s misinterpretation of the passage emphasizes slave owners use of religion to reinforce their power over their slaves. Christianity rationalized the concept of buying and selling human beings, and that God approved this too. In addition, Douglass used religion as a way to fuel his abolition movement. Under Master Hugh’s, Douglass began to learn how to read and write. Once

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Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

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Douglass tells us this by saying that he believes anyone who is a slave owner cannot be a Christian. In his view, he believes being a slave owner violates the very principles of being a Christian. Auld quote he believes that the Christianity practiced by the Slave owners and the Christianity practiced by non-slave owners are two

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Another ideological form was through religion and spirituality(Mattis). This correlates directly with Lawson’s teaching of nonviolent direct action. Lawson drew examples of Jesus Christ suffering in biblical context and compared them to the struggles that African Americans faced during the civil rights era. He showed that Christ’s struggles were not so different from his peoples and conveyed the message that the power of nonviolent direct action was ultimately the best course of activism. Lawson’s “Expression of Love” (Mattis) for the oppressed people of America is shown through his dedication of learning and reciprocating Gandhian and Christ like values to those in America.

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During the civil rights movement, the black community did not have much to depend on. “Oppression, rejection and segregation leave a human being with no one to turn to, but God” (Vicki Phipps n.pag.). With nothing to rely on African Americans use the church as their safe haven and a place of convenience. The church was more than a place to have meetings, it was a place where they could relax and talk to God. The African American church was so important that if anything happened, it would take the civil rights movement to a new

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“ I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, woman-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” (Douglass 100) Douglass does this to show how hypocritical people in the South were being. Churches were teaching the Christian practice of being kind and compassionate while not actually practicing it themselves. Douglass argues that the actions of some people are against religion.

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During the civil rights era, the black church stood as a foundation for the African American community. It was a safe haven for those who felt like they didn’t have a voice outside of the church. The black church used to be a political atmosphere especially for those advocating black rights. It gave blacks the pedestal to vocalize the issues in the community and in the world to the oppressed. This was during a time when African Americans received no respect and were placed at the feet of injustice by the American society.

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Evangelical preachers, in keeping with their social doctrine that targeted the disadvantaged in society, attempted to convert slaves and Native Americans. Prior to the Awakening no one had made a serious effort at their conversion for fear that Christianity was “a step towards freedom” (357). Slaves attended evangelical sermons en masse, wary of the Anglican ministers who supported their masters. Evangelical Christianity offered moments of release and equality from the perpetual suffering of a slave’s life. This did not mean, however, that the evangelists actively opposed slavery.

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During the tumultuous period of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, the goal for bettering the lives of African-Americans was desired by many. However, the means of attaining that goal, varied greatly among the representatives of the movement. The African-American civil rights efforts were spearheaded by men of peaceful protest for integration, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and in contrast leaders such as Malcolm X who expressed separatist ideals. Other groups of civil rights advocated took an outright violent approach, such as the Black Panthers.

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If thou doesn’t love thy neighbor as thyself, thou was unchristian like. Fervent sermons transferred meaningful ideas of equality to everyday citizens. Reverend Miller presented this sermon at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Methodist denomination was one of the most outspoken anti-slavery sects. The Methodist gained the most membership during the Second Great Awakening, in fact one in five Americans belonged to the Methodist Church (Keillor 1).

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The African American Civil Rights movement existed at large between the early fifties and the late sixties in a society that was constantly on the verge of social destruction. The black rights movement existed politically, socially, and economically everywhere in the United States. As time progressed the movement developed and saw many changes along with schisms separating activists and how they approached getting their rights. In the early fifties there was a large non-violent integration based movement spearheaded by figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, as the time progressed, the movement started seeing a more aggressive leadership with figures such as Malcolm X, but eventually it turned into an extremist movement

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After World War II, Black Veterans returned home focused on the promise of democracy, for which they had just finished fighting. The entire country was filled with zeal about democracy and against the fascism they had just defeated. This focus on democracy opened a window for Black Americans to begin to protest segregation and discriminatory laws. Religion, particularly Christianity, was a significant part of the Civil Rights movement. It was also a significant part of the opposition to the Civil Rights movement.

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Religion and its relationship to slavery is a contradictive subject, whether it was forced upon slaves or was a form of hope and freedom is still commonly debated about to this day. However, these individuals were devoted Christians in the abolitionist movement who all

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Civil Rights Church Involvement African American churches greatly relied on churches during the Civil Rights movement for many reasons, the number one being that the church was their society as they were not granted access to the white society. The church was extremely important because of segregation from whites depriving blacks so much of their society and throughout history, black churches had more than just worship going on, it was a community within itself, a court for the people helping to solve issues, a group of support, and specifically political activism. This activism was greatly shown in the Civil Rights Movement during the fifties and sixties.

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