Fredrick C. Harris

R. Drew Smith

This book on black churches and urban politics uses case studies from various cities to examine the strategies and tactics of activist clergy and congregations. These case studies illustrate how black activist clergy and congregations negotiate the political terrains of their respective cities. The cases show that the political culture of a city--whether that culture is shaped by machine politics, a legacy of political protest, racial and ethnic factionalism, or a city whose power resides in the mayor's office rather than the city council chamber--can influence the tactics of activist clergy and congregations. These cases also show how strategies and tactics vary across congregations as well as within and across cities. Not only do activist churches emphasize political empowerment or economic development, their tactics to pursue their goals may take different forms. They can form coalitions with other churches and/or political organizations, lobby public officials, use personal appeals to persuade politicians, or mobilize voters for candidates who support the congregation's agenda. By taking stock of the strategies that activist black clergy and congregations adopt and the tactics they use to research their goals, the cases in this book highlight nuances in black clergy and church activism that are captured beyond a single case or a focus on national politics. The three sections of Black Churches and Local Politics examine the many ways that black activist clergy and congregations voice their concerns in urban politics. The tactics explored are the use of personal influence by activist ministers, the formation of coalitions with churches and community organizations, and pressure groups that lobby government institutions and leaders on behalf of minority communities.

Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships, and Civic Empowerment

Black Churches and Local Politics

Going beyond the opiate-inspiration debate that has dominated research on the subject, author Fredrick C.

Religion in African-American Political Activism

Something Within

Robert C. Lieberman

Nearly a half century after the civil rights movement, racial inequality remains a defining feature of American life. Along a wide range of social and economic dimensions, African Americans consistently lag behind whites. This troubling divide has persisted even as many of the obvious barriers to equality, such as state-sanctioned segregation and overt racial hostility, have markedly declined. How then can we explain the stubborn persistence of racial inequality? In Beyond Discrimination: Racial Inequality in a Post-Racist Era, a diverse group of scholars provides a more precise understanding of when and how racial inequality can occur without its most common antecedents, prejudice and discrimination. Beyond Discrimination focuses on the often hidden political, economic and historical mechanisms that now sustain the black-white divide in America. The first set of chapters examines the historical legacies that have shaped contemporary race relations. Desmond King reviews the civil rights movement to pinpoint why racial inequality became an especially salient issue in American politics. He argues that while the civil rights protests led the federal government to enforce certain political rights, such as the right to vote, addressing racial inequities in housing, education, and income never became a national priority. The volume then considers the impact of racial attitudes in American society and institutions. Phillip Goff outlines promising new collaborations between police departments and social scientists that will improve the measurement of racial bias in policing. The book finally focuses on the structural processes that perpetuate racial inequality. Devin Fergus discusses an obscure set of tax and insurance policies that, without being overtly racially drawn, penalizes residents of minority neighborhoods and imposes an economic handicap on poor blacks and Latinos. Naa Oyo Kwate shows how apparently neutral and apolitical market forces concentrate fast food and alcohol advertising in minority urban neighborhoods to the detriment of the health of the community. As it addresses the most pressing arenas of racial inequality, from education and employment to criminal justice and health, Beyond Discrimination exposes the unequal consequences of the ordinary workings of American society. It offers promising pathways for future research on the growing complexity of race relations in the United States.

Fredrick C. Harris

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