Black churches served as the organizing infrastructure for political resistance

Evidence

In 1830, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church was the site of the inauguration of the Colored Conventions movement, gatherings of free Black leaders who met to discuss and strategize about educational, political, labor, and legal rights. Allen, then seventy years old, was elected president of the convention, combining the roles of spiritual and political leader in a way that would become common for Black clergy. Throughout the nineteenth century, these conventions, which provided a critical foundation for building a political case for abolition, equality, and Black citizenship, were often held in churches. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1031

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the book’s ‘origin stories are infrastructure’ framing — church institutions as the physical and social infrastructure out of which the political case for abolition and citizenship was built. — connects to: Movements grounded in preexisting churches mobilize better than those without social infrastructure — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 503; Spiritual salvation and political racial advancement were fused in black church tradition — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 565; The black church served as the primary autonomous arena for racial self-help after Reconstruction. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 52 (+7 more)