This is a collection of biographies of many women, including gospel singers, black nuns, preachers, missionaries and civil-rights workers. These biographies look at the history and experiences of African American women, in relation to their spirituality and activities in organized religion. Main topics include the bias against women by the male leadership of the Black Church, the racism and sexism of mainstream religions, the relationship between spirituality and activism, and the outside-of-church ways in which women are involved in religion. The book ranges from the period of slavery to the present day, and profiles figures such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Willie Mae Ford Smith and Ella Baker, exploring the role that religious institutions, artistic forms and impulses played in their lives.
This is a collection of biographies of many women, including gospel singers, black nuns, preachers, missionaries and civil-rights workers. These biographies look at the history and experiences of African American women, in relation to their spirituality and activities in organized religion. Main topics include the bias against women by the male leadership of the Black Church, the racism and sexism of mainstream religions, the relationship between spirituality and activism, and the outside-of-church ways in which women are involved in religion. The book ranges from the period of slavery to the present day, and profiles figures such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Willie Mae Ford Smith and Ella Baker, exploring the role that religious institutions, artistic forms and impulses played in their lives.
Introduction We Have Been Believers: Patterns of African-American Women’s Religiosity, Judith Weisenfeld; Part 1 African-American Women’s Religious Arts; Chapter 1 The Harriet Powers Pictorial Quilts, Marie Jeanne Adams; Chapter 2 Willie Mae Ford Smith of St. Louis: A Shaping Influence upon Black Gospel Singing Style, William Thomas Dargan, Kathy White Bullock; Chapter 3 Lucie E. Campbell Williams a Cultural Biography, Reverend Charles Walker; Part 2 African-American Women and Church Institutions; Chapter 4 Praying in the Shadows: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, a Look at Nineteenth-Century Black Catholic Spirituality, Thaddeus J. Posey, O.F.M. Cap; Chapter 5 ::, Stephen Ward Angell; Chapter 6 ::, Richard Newman; Chapter 7 Mary McLeod Bethune and the Methodist Episcopal Church North: In But Out, Clarence G. Newsome; Chapter 8 Religion, Politics, and Gender: The Leadership of Nannie Helen Burroughs, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham; Chapter 9 A Black Woman in a White Man’s Church: Amy E. Robbins and the Reorganization, Roger D. Launius; Chapter 10 Minister and Feminist Reformer: The Life of Florence Spearing Randolph, Bettye Collier-Thomas; Part 3 African-American Women and Christian Missions; Chapter 11 Elizabeth Mars Johnson Thomson (1807–1864): A Research Note, Randall K. Burkett; Chapter 12 “Who is Sufficient for These Things?” Sara G. Stanley and the American Missionary Association, 1864–1868, Judith Weisenfeld; Chapter 13 Spelman’s Emma B. Delaney and the African Mission, Sandy D. Martin; Part 4 African-American Women, Religion, and Activism; Chapter 14 In Search of Harriet Tubman’s Spiritual Autobiography, Jean M. Humez; Chapter 15 Representing Truth: Sojourner Truth’s Knowing And Becoming Known, Nell Irvin Painter; Chapter 16 Septima P. Clark and the Struggle for Human Rights, Grace Jordan Mcfadden;
Judith Weisenfeld is Assistant Professor of Religion at Barnard College. Richard Newman is with the DuBois Institute, Harvard University.
"This collection of essays offers a profound introduction to the
complex role of religion in the lives of African American women.
Newman and Weisenfeld have edited the definitive collection of
African-American women's religious biography yet published." --
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A powerful collection of biographies which will help readers
locate and appreciate the struggles of these foresisters." --
Waterwheel
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