Christianity and the American Civil Rights Movement
The American Civil War led to a number of tensions within the Union, in which the former southern “slave” states developed state and local laws which allowed them to maintain racial segregation along antebellum lines. The so-called “Jim Crow laws,” enacted between 1876 and 1965, mandated policies of racial segregation similar to those in force in South Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, under the name of apartheid (“separateness”). These laws laid the foundation for racial segregation in all public facilities in the southern states of the former Confederacy.
It is widely agreed that, despite the importance of individual activists and campaigners, the key to the success of the civil rights movement was the black churches of the southern states. These represented the most significant social and political force to emerge from the former slave communities. Although these were socially marginalized in the southern states during the period between the two world wars, these churches were the only institutions with the finances, structure, and mass membership needed to bring about a mass mobiliza- tion of African-Americans with the power to change society.
