The Religion & Culture Web Forum
Commentary Footnotes
April 2005
Footnotes for
Seeking a Prophet:
How Religion Mediates
the Relationship between Black America and the U.S. Presidents
by Melissa Harris Lacewell (University of Chicago)
1 Three Fifths compromise of 1787 was enacted by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The plan was offered by James Madison for determining a state’s representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The issue of how to count slaves split the delegates into two orders. The northerners regarded slaves as property who should receive no representation. Southerners demanded that blacks be counted equally with whites. The compromise reflected the strength of the pro-slavery forces at the convention. The “Three-fifths Compromise” allowed a state to count three fifths of each black person in determining political representation in the House.
2 Some sources on the issue of slave resistance include: Berlin, Ira et al. 1998. Remembering slavery: African Americans talk about their personal experiences of slavery and freedom. New York: The New Press; Washington, D.C.. Burton, Richard D. E.1997. Afro-Creole: power, opposition, and play in the Caribbean. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. Butler, Kim D.. Freedoms given, freedoms won: Afro-Brazilians in post-abolition, Sao Paulo and Salvador. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1998. Slavery Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1979. Black Slavery in the Americas: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography, 1865-1980. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.
3 Patterson, Orlando. 1985. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Harvard University Press: Cambridge. Wilmore, Gayraud S. 1998. Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans. Maryknoll, NewYork: Orbis Books. Stewart, Carlyle Fielding (III). 1999. Black Spirituality and Black Consciousness: Soul Force, Culture and Freedom in the African-American Experience. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. Riggens, Earl. 1993. Dark Symbols, Obscure Signs: God, Self, and Community in the Slave Mind. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. Cleage, Albert B., Jr. 1969. The Black Messiah: The Religious Roots of Black Power. New York: Sheed and Ward. Cannon, Katie. 1995. Katie’s Cannon: womanism and the Soul of the Black Community. New York: Continuum.
4 Wilmore, Gayraud S. 1998. Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. pp 25.
5 Frazier, E. Franklin. 1974. The Negro Church in America. New York: Schocken Books. Lincoln, C. Eric. 1974. The Black Church Since Frazier. New York: Schocken Books.
6 Lincoln, C. Eric and Lawrence H. Mamiya. 1990. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham: Duke University Press.
7 McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Morris, Aldon D. 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York: The Free Press. Brady, Henry; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman. 1996 Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Harvard University Press: Cambridge.
8 Harris, Frederick C. 1999. Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellison, Christopher G. 1993. Religious Involvement and Self-Perception among Black Americans. Social Forces. Volume 71, Issue 4, 1027-1055. Calhoun-Brown, Allison. 1996. African American Churches and Political Mobilization: The Psychological Impact of Organizational Resources. The Journal of Politics. Volume 58, Issue 4, 935-953.
9 Some have argued that the black church does not have a distinct theology or did not have one until the mid-1960s. Cone, James H. and Gayraud S. Wilmore, eds. 1993. Black Theology: A Documentary History, Volume One: 1966-1979. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. In the introduction Cone and Wilmore argue that “when blacks separated themselves from White denominations and organized their own churches in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries they did not perceive their actions as being motivated by theological differences. They accepted without alteration the church doctrines and politics of the White denominations from which they separated.” (pp. 89) In some ways this assertion is an overstatement, one that does not credit the distinct worship styles and religious emphases that distinguished slave religion from the Christianity of white Americans, but it does reflect the lack of a fully articulated academic theological perspective to guide black Christian worship. I am making a claim toe a more organic form of theology built around commonly held understandings of religious texts that circulate in black churches.
10 Wimbush, Vincent. 2003. The Bible and African Americans: A Brief History. Fortress Press: Minneapolis. pp. 40-41.
12 Neustadt, Richard. 1991. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan. Free Press: New York.
13 Nelson, Michael. 1995 Evaluating the Presidency from Michael Nelson (editor) The Presidency and the Political System 4th edition, Congressional Quarterly: Washington, DC. pp 9.
15 Peterson, Merrill D.1994. Lincoln in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
16 Sandage, Scott. 1993. A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Politics of Memory, 1939-1963. Journal of American History. Volume 80, Number 1.
17 Bennett, Lerone. 2000. Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream. Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago.
18 Peterson, Merrill D.1994. Lincoln in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
19 Historians classify the post-Reconstruction era, especially following Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the nadir of American race relations. By deferring to states' rights throughout post-Reconstruction, the Federal government and Supreme Court allowed the persistent and deliberate destruction of black civil rights momentarily gained in the Reconstruction amendments. The prospect of permanent confinement to a second-class status made post-Reconstruction America the "nadir" moment for blacks.
20 President Franklin D. Roosevelt did denounce lynching following an incident of a white person being murdered by mob violence. He did not draw specific parallels to the black experience of lynching. For more on this see Weiss, Nancy. 1983. Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
21 Dawson, Michael. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 99-100.
23 Walton, Hanes 1972. Black Political Parties: An Historical and Political Analysis. Free Press: New York.
24 Weiss, Nancy. 1983. Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
27 Perhaps the most comprehensive study of change in U.S. racial attitudes, Schumann, Steeth, and Bobo’s Racial Attitudes in America (1985, 1997) uncovers a significant and persistent gap in contemporary attitudes of white and black Americans. They find “large differences in the perspectives of blacks and whites about the causes of black disadvantage. Blacks emphasize continuing discrimination; whites stress low motivation on the part of blacks. This disagreement in perceptions of causality sets the stage for many other differences.” (Schuman, Steeth, Bobo, and Krysan 1997, 275).
28 There is always some difference in self report data in post-election surveys and the actual counts from voting localities. However, surveys of white Americans typically create a bandwagon effect where survey respondents over-report having voted for the election winner. The fact that African Americans over-report support for the Democratic candidate, even when that candidate fails to win the election is indicative of the strength of the attachment to the party and its candidates.
29 For more on this trend and its relevance for contemporary black politics see the following sources: Barker, Lucius. 1989. Jesse Jackson’s candidacy in political-social perspective: A contextual analysis. In Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential Campaign: Challenge and Change in American Politics. Lucius Barker and Ronald Walters, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press Dawson, Michael. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Dawson, Michael; Brown, Ronald; Cohen, Cathy. 1990. Political Parties and African American Unemployment. Unpublished Manuscript. Tate, Katherine. 1994. From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections. Harvard University Press: Cambridge. Walters, Ronald. 1989. The emergent mobilization of the black community in the Jackson campaign for president. In Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential Campaign: Challenge and Change in American Politics. Lucius Barker and Ronald Walters, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
30 Dawson, Michael. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 117.
31 Pinkney, Alphonso. 1984. The Myth of Black Progress. Cambridge University Press: New York. pp. 178.
32 There was one important factor that complicated presidential politics for black American in the 1980s. Although the presidency was held by Republicans whom African Americans largely reviled, 1984 and 1988 ushered in the Democratic primary bids of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. Jackson’s presidential bids had an important influence on black involvement in presidential politics by increasing voter registration and turnout among blacks and by affecting the attitudes that blacks held toward the Democratic party. For full treatment of these issues see the following sources. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential Campaign: Challenge and Change in American Politics. Lucius Barker and Ronald Walters, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Tate, Katherine. 1994. From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections. Harvard University Press: Cambridge. Reed, Adolph. The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon: The Crisis of Purpose in Afro-American Politics. Yale University Press: New Haven.
33 The National Black Election Study survey focuses on the attitudes and political preferences of the Black electorate during the 1984 and 1988 presidential elections. Questions regarding party identification, political interest, and preferences and choices for president were asked. In addition, respondents were asked about their feelings concerning Jesse Jackson's campaigns for the presidency in 1984 and 1988 and the effect his campaigns had on the elections. Information on race and gender issues, economic matters, quality of life, government spending, political participation, and religion and church politics is also included. Demographic information on respondents includes sex, age, education, marital status, income, and occupation and industry. Principal Investigator James Jackson.
34 The data from the NBPS come from a probability sample of all African American households, yielding 1206 respondents who are African Americans eighteen years or older. The survey was conducted between November 20, 1993 and February 20, 1994, with a response rate of sixty-five percent. The survey was administered through the University of Chicago with principal investigators Ronald Brown of Wayne State University and Michael Dawson of the University of Chicago.
35 Shingles, Richard. 1981. Black Consciousness and Political Participation: The Missing Link. The American Political Science Review. Volume 75, Number 1. Dawson, Michael. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Tate, Katherine. 1994. From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections. Harvard University Press: Cambridge.
36 Morrison, Toni. 1998. The Talk of the Town. The New Yorker. October 5, 1998.
37 Bobo, Lawrence and Dawson, Michael. 2001. Poles and Polls Apart: Blacks and Whites Divided on the Clinton Legacy. Preliminary report from joint project of Dubois and CSRPC.
38 Wickham, DeWayne. 2002. Bill Clinton and Black America. Ballantine Books: New York., pp. 80.
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