Martin of Atlanta: Entangling Martin Luther King, Jr and St. Martin de Porres at Atlanta's Oldest Black Catholic Church (original) (raw)
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Martin de Porres, 17th-century Peruvian friar, became the first saint of African descent from the Americas upon his 1962 canonization as the patron of social justice. Martin's devotees transform diasporan spaces into places of dwelling and belonging through material networks of devotional practices, acquiring particular groundings among Afro-Latino/as and African-Americans. I chart fragmentary movements of Martin across three sites: Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, a Black congregation in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward; Nuestra Señora de las Américas, a Spanish mission in Lilburn, GA; and Atlanta-area botánicas indexing Catholic, West/Central African and Native American cosmologies including curanderismo, espiritismo, and Lucumí. I contend that the performative (re)locations of Martin create sites of diasporan memory, bridging disjunct histories and geographies emanating from Africa across the Americas. Mapping Martin de Porres devotions from the Peruvian Pacific, through the Caribbean, and into contemporary Atlanta, this (re)search offers a cartographic vision to unsettle the metonymic imagining of diaspora bounded within the Black Atlantic, while revealing the porous delineations between the United States and Latin America.
Holy Martin: The Overlooked Canonization of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Religion and American Culture, 2000
This essay argues that there exists in American society a popular religious belief in martyrs beyond traditional church institutions. Sometimes, it works to reframe the slippery, often ambiguous metaphors used by the press and the rhetoric of politicians into sincere statements of faith by ordinary people The popular martyrdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the product of this tradition of martyr-making and many Americans’ ability to reconstruct the press’s depictions of the civil rights leader.
2016
When Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched from the Brown Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama on March 15, 1965, Archbishop Iakovos, leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, was among the few white men who accompanied him. Iakovos, who had experienced religious oppression himself as a child, accepted Dr. King's invitation demonstrating his commitment to freedom and civil rights as key principles of the American life. Iakovos stated that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese could no longer remain a " spectator and listener, " and it must labor and struggle to develop its spiritual life. In the end, his firm support of Dr. King's initiative helped bring to fruition the passage of voting rights legislation, advancing equality among his communicants. This paper examines the leadership role of Iakovos in his support of the African American Civil Rights Movement and, furthermore, assesses the impact of his activism on the Greek Orthodox community in America with regard to the previously introverted and conservative attitudes.
The faith of Black Catholics inspired their activism
U.S. Catholic, 2023
When remembering the revolutionary period in American history known as the civil rights movement-a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign that set out to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United States and lasted from 1954 to 1968-several key figures come to mind. Perhaps it is Thurgood Marshall and his groundbreaking work on the Supreme Court case that came to be known as Brown vs. Board of Education; Rosa Parks, whose unwillingness to give up her seat on the bus played a pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott; or maybe the most prominent figure, pastor and theologian Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a key participant and organizer for the March on Washington, the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the Poor Peopleʼs Campaign to name just a few. But what o en doesnʼt happen in our recollections of this tumultuous and challenging time is considering the active role that many Catholics, specifically Black Catholics,
The Role of the Black Church in the American Civil Rights Movement
2017
This paper seeks to argue that the black church played a pioneering role in the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. To be sure, one cannot think of the CRM without the crucial role played by the black church. The black church not only provided support to various civil rights organizations but also acted as the movement church itself. The church ministers played a vital role in the success of the CRM and the black church mobilized resources and made the CRM practically possible. From the role of the Church in the CRM, one can easily envision the role of religion in social change and identity politics which, in turn, seeks to negate the promise of the project enlightenment. Today, religion has come back as a powerful force and has thus become a reality both in social change and construction of identity not only nationally but also internationally.
2014
Having assumed black Pentecostals are "otherworldly" or detached from politics and this-worldly concerns, many religious and civil rights scholars have ignored black Holiness-Pentecostals' involvements in the Civil Rights Movement and instead focused on the roles of black Baptists and Methodists. Primarily guided by historical, sociological, theo-ethical, and hermeneutical methods, this dissertation examines Church of God in Christ (COGIC) members' engagements in the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis, Tennessee, 1954-1968. I chose Memphis as the location to examine these assumptions because the most renowned Civil Rights leader, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his last sermon at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the headquarters of the largest and oldest black holiness-Pentecostal denomination. The dissertation argues that Memphis COGIC members were not divorced from the Memphis Movement but endeavored to combat racial injustice and inequality through a diversity of means, including through politics, nonviolent direct action, and spiritual quest. I contend that despite being marginalized and treated as outsiders on account of their race and religious faith, prior to the Civil Rights Movement early saints affirmed their identity as United States citizens, valued American democratic ideas of freedom and equality, and endeavored to advance democratic principles through participating in civic life. Additionally, when the Civil Rights Movement came to Memphis in the 1950s, COGIC members joined and worked alongside black church leaders from other denominations and engaged in nearly every aspect of the struggle, including political campaigns, desegregation efforts, and the Sanitation Workers Strike. Furthermore, I argue that Holiness-Pentecostal theology informed the activism of Memphis COGIC Civil Rights activists. Affirming his Holiness-Pentecostal heritage, Bishop J.O. Patterson Sr., a prominent Memphis Civil Rights activist, sought to persuade blacks in general and to remind black Christian activists in particular of the indispensability of spiritual presence and empowerment for social struggle. My research findings provoke scholars of religion to rethink the meaning and implications of otherworldliness. Additionally, this research indicates that there is greater complexity to black churches involvement in the Civil Rights Movement besides the contributions of black Baptists and Methodists. This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, Courtney Miller-Chism, my companion and friend who has encouraged and supported me greatly during my years of graduate study; to my son, Jonathan Chism Jr., who was born as I began writing and who has provided me with smiles and inspiration; to my parents-Moses Chism Sr. and Forrestine Chism, who have given me a strong foundation rooted in love; my older siblings-Anthony, Felicia, Moses Jr., David, and Daniel, who have been positive role models; to my mother-in-law, Gloria Miller and my Aunt Charlotte for your support with childcare during these past few years; and to all of my sister-in-laws, brother-in-law, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins. This dissertation would not have been possible without the many people who have contributed to my intellectual development and growth. First, I want to thank to my advisor, Dr. Anthony B. Pinn. Thanks for pushing me intellectually, for being a friend, and for patiently showing me the ropes. I appreciate each of the members of my dissertation committee who have helped me to grow during coursework. I appreciate Dr. Michael Emerson for providing tips for conducting qualitative interviews and for reading the full draft of the dissertation. I am thankful to all of my colleagues past and present in the Religious Studies Department and in the African American Religion concentration at Rice. I appreciate all of my professors in the Religious Studies Department,
“Op. Cit. Revista de Estudos Anglo-Americanos. A Journal of Anglo-American Studies", 2022
The main aim of this article is to discuss Black churches' ambivalence toward Martin Luther King Jr.'s protest strategy in the context of the "Black Lives Matter" (BLM) debate. Although many Black churches played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, some of them presented harsh criticism towards King's civil disobedience-criticism which is rarely mentioned today. Analyzing their arguments is especially interesting now, when churches that oppose BLM claim they would support it if it resembled King's movement more. Recalling the past controversies and comparing the discussion in the civil rights era to the contemporary debate might be helpful in understanding Black churches' reasons for accepting or rejecting protest movements.
Pneuma, 2013
Although black Pentecostal leaders are known for their emphasis on holiness and spiritual empowerment, they are not renowned for having led and spearheaded political protest struggles during the Civil Rights movement. In this paper I discuss black Pentecostals’ postures toward political protest struggles, and I analyze reasons why some black Pentecostals participated in the Civil Rights movement while others did not. My central argument is that critical consciousness formation played an integral role in motivating a minority of Church of God in Christ (COGIC) clergy and leaders to engage in Civil Rights protest struggles. That is to say, many black Pentecostals who took part in the movement reconciled their strivings for spiritual empowerment against evil with critical reflection upon complex social, political, and economic realities. They recognized the utility of opposing structures of oppression through direct, nonviolent means.