During the Civil Rights Movement religion played an important role because it inspired and motivated many to create organized movements and demonstrations that would affect and change the injustices of that time. An example is how the Southern Christian Leadership Conference became organized starting from within the church-led protests. In Fredrick C. Harris’s article,Something Within: Religion as a Mobilizer of African-American Political Activism, he states that “The church as an indigenous organization could provide the leadership base, social interaction, and communication networks required for collective action” (p 45). This shows how religion was not just used as an emotional and mental experience but rather it helped bring people together to show them that they needed to be a part of the church and later an organization, which was necessary in order to bring change within society. The social structure of this specific religion was helping the civil rights movement bring more supporters together because people were able to connect and bond with one another culturally as well as through their beliefs. However, what I found interesting was that with all the emphasis being on the leaders of church organizations such as, the SCLC was that behind these organizations were many people who were not religious leaders that made the civil rights movement possible. Also, Mathesin makes a point that “Churchmen had always functioned as leaders and spokesmen, but they usually accommodated to the racial mores of the time...(p.721). On the other hand, Mathesin says that “…generations of black activists and intellectuals had excoriated the church for its conservatism and lack of social and political awareness” (p721) This again shows how the people who were behind the scenes of the civil rights movement that were not religious leaders played such a strong role in keeping the movement strong in structure and organization. While at the same time the religious leaders seem to have played the role of using their speeches to move and keep the people inspired to never give up. In Martin Luther King’s letter to Birmingham he explains what the attended goal was to achieve with the non violence campaign and the fact that the reason there are no negotiations is because no one will listen or take them seriously so the problem must be dealt with upfront. He also uses examples of Hitler and a Communist country, and even historical events from the Bible to compare that the evils of the past are not so different from the evil of the inequalities that people of color were dealing with. In the aid for desegregation and equality for African Americans, policies in the United States were also changing. According to Mathesin there were political breakthroughs for African Americans and because of these improvements African Americans were becoming closer to gaining stronger political involvement.
References:
1. Mathesin, Robert, R. Critical Issues in American Religious History: A Reader (2nd
Revised Edition). Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006. Print.
2. King, Martin Luther Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail.
3.Harris, Fredrick C. The Journal of Politics, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Feb., 1994), pp. 45
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