All posts tagged: race relations

The Black Church: Meeting the Needs of Their People

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All throughout history, humanity has been attached to the idea of spirituality and religion. From the Ancient Egyptians, to the Nordic Vikings, to the evangelical conservatives, religion has been a major factor in many human’s lives. African American’s are no different. Religion and the church have been a major contribution and epicenter for African Americans since the days of slavery. Church, music, and art have been an expression of black folks’ own struggles, hopes, dreams, and fears. Within the context of a congregation, there was found much safety and acceptance for African Americans for many decades following emancipation. One could attend church, and find themselves surrounded primarily by other African Americans, for as Martin Luther King Jr. has been quoted, “I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated hours, in Christian America.”[1] While King certainly felt by 1960 that the natural segregation that occurred overtime within the church was …

Deep South Culture during Secession

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Eighty-five years. That is how much time passed between the unity of a people, fighting together for an independent nation, and the breakdown of that unity. Yet much transpired in the eighty-five years that bridged 1776 and 1861. Massive population increases, economic growth and hardships, and an ever-growing landscape are just a few. It is no secret that leading into the American Civil War there stood two geographical areas that were in stark contrast to one another on some inflammatory issues and the question of slavery was not the least among them. But what motives had the South given as the truest for inciting secession and civil war? The answer is not simple, for although the issue of slavery is easy to target, the majority of Unionists did not have a strong conviction to abolish slavery. Nor is it satisfactory to claim that the Confederates were unwilling to develop past their archaic, bondage ways especially when one considers how few Southerners actually kept slaves. In investigating the reasons why Southern states were unable to compromise …

The Fall of Lincoln

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“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. The American Civil War had just ended.  General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army had met with General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.  Although President Abraham Lincoln along with General Grant promised to allow the Confederates to surrender peacefully and without harsh punishment, in losing the war and secession the south had lost …