Kerry Pimblott - Faith in Black Power: Religion, Race, and Resistance in Cairo, Illinois

Faith in Black Power

FAITH IN
BLACK POWER

KERRY PIMBLOTT

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Copyright 2017 by The University Press of Kentucky

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serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pimblott, Kerry, author.

Title: Faith in black power : religion, race, and resistance in Cairo, Illinois / Kerry Pimblott.

Other titles: Religion, race, and resistance in Cairo, Illinois

Description: Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2017] | Series: Civil rights and the struggle for black equality in the twentieth century | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016046789| ISBN 9780813168821 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813168913 (pdf) | ISBN 9780813168906 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Civil rights movementsIllinoisCairo. | Cairo (Ill.)Race relations. | African AmericansIllinoisCairoHistory. | Black power. | African American churchesHistory. | Civil rightsReligious aspectsChristianity. | Race relationsReligious aspectsChristianity. | Cairo (Ill.)History20th century.

Classification: LCC F549.C2 P56 2017 | DDC 323.1196073/999dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046789

This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

In Memory of Mark H. Leff

On March 13, 1971, the United Fronta nationally renowned black power organization based in Cairo, Illinoispublished an article written by sixteen-year-old Oklahoman Karen Rice in its weekly paper the United Front News. In the article, entitled The Movement, God and Me, Rice testified to her political awakening while attending a Lutheran conference in Chicago. During the conference, attendees were encouraged to get together with others of [their] own race and discover themselves as a group of people. African American students joined together in forming a black caucus called Black Youth Unlimited and, according to Rice, were completely de-brainwashed and blackenized by the experience. However, upon returning home to Tulsa, Rice struggled to find practical outlets for her heightened sense of racial consciousness. She joined a gospel troupe called the Ghetto Choir and began performing in black communities across the country, but she continued to have doubts about her role in the movement and began increasingly to doubt the relevance of her Christian faith to the black liberation struggle. I knew that the choir was working through the hands of Jesus Christ, she explained, but I just was not sure if this was my role in the movement. In particular, Rice struggled to reconcile her emergent sense of black consciousness with popular conceptions of Christianity as the white mans religion: How can we believe in something that was taught to us by the white man? Rice asked. It seemed [as] though our oppressor had given us this religion called Christianity so that he could control us. This, Rice explained, is probably why black people have been a non-violent people for so long.