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Witnessing and Testifying: Black Women, Religion, and Civil Rights
The Civil Rights Movement was not only an epochal social and political event but also a profound moral turning point in American history. Here, for the first time, social ethicist Ross examines the religiously motivated activism of black women in the movement and its moral import.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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January 10, 2021
The core of this book focuses on the lives of seven Black religious women (Christian & Muslim), who were civil rights activists—Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria DeLee, Clara Muhammad, Diane Nash, and Ruby Doris Smith Robinson.
Going much deeper than the large, public demonstrations, this book dives into the early life influences of each woman, an in-depth values and operational look at their work during the Civil Rights Movement, and a theological and social ethics analysis of each woman’s lived values, the organizations they built, and the cumulative and consequential effect of building off each other’s work. (It also starts with shorter chapters on Sojourner Truth and Nannie Helen Burroughs’ liberation work that preceded the 1960s.)
Far too much to list all of their work, but impossible to not walk away more inspired to build beyond rhetoric and put the work in to create systems and organizations that can achieve meaningful progress.
One poignant example, Diane Nash picked up leadership of the Freedom Rides when others thought it was too dangerous, saw it through to completion in Alabama, and after serving her jail sentence there, she saw the need and lack of organization — so she stayed and organized local leadership “until Martin Luther King, Jr had to come.”
One example where the structure is still in place today; Septima Poinsetta Clark’s civil rights Citizen Education Program lives on in the same physical place that she started it, at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.
The education programs and Center have of course continued to grow and evolve, but the legacy lives on in nearly the same form. From their current website: “Through popular education, language justice, participatory research, cultural work, and intergenerational organizing, we help create spaces — at Highlander and in local communities — where people gain knowledge, hope and courage, expanding their ideas of what is possible."
Broad knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement is always inspiring to me, but I also learned a lot more on the operational side of how some of the major programs were actually put into action and I recommend this book particularly for that reason.
I’ve also got several of the women’s biographies on my reading list now and am planning a trip to the Highlander Center as soon as possible.
Going much deeper than the large, public demonstrations, this book dives into the early life influences of each woman, an in-depth values and operational look at their work during the Civil Rights Movement, and a theological and social ethics analysis of each woman’s lived values, the organizations they built, and the cumulative and consequential effect of building off each other’s work. (It also starts with shorter chapters on Sojourner Truth and Nannie Helen Burroughs’ liberation work that preceded the 1960s.)
Far too much to list all of their work, but impossible to not walk away more inspired to build beyond rhetoric and put the work in to create systems and organizations that can achieve meaningful progress.
One poignant example, Diane Nash picked up leadership of the Freedom Rides when others thought it was too dangerous, saw it through to completion in Alabama, and after serving her jail sentence there, she saw the need and lack of organization — so she stayed and organized local leadership “until Martin Luther King, Jr had to come.”
One example where the structure is still in place today; Septima Poinsetta Clark’s civil rights Citizen Education Program lives on in the same physical place that she started it, at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.
The education programs and Center have of course continued to grow and evolve, but the legacy lives on in nearly the same form. From their current website: “Through popular education, language justice, participatory research, cultural work, and intergenerational organizing, we help create spaces — at Highlander and in local communities — where people gain knowledge, hope and courage, expanding their ideas of what is possible."
Broad knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement is always inspiring to me, but I also learned a lot more on the operational side of how some of the major programs were actually put into action and I recommend this book particularly for that reason.
I’ve also got several of the women’s biographies on my reading list now and am planning a trip to the Highlander Center as soon as possible.
Displaying 1 of 1 review