The National Baptist Convention asserted autonomous control of black racial life

Evidence

In 1896 Richard H. Boyd, head of the publishing board of the one-year-old convention, captured this bold, race-conscious spirit when he characterized the NBC as “simply a determination on the part of the Negroes to assume control of their race life and evolve along such lines and such ways as their spirit and genius may dictate … and not as the Anglo Saxon may outline.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 327

Categorization

• XREF: Boyd’s formulation that blacks must evolve ‘not as the Anglo Saxon may outline’ directly foreshadows the later ‘politics of respectability’ tension between self-definition and dominant-culture standards. — connects to: Black Baptist separatism escalated only after white control blocked black inclusion. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 246; Church leaders converted the masses’ race consciousness into an assertive collective will — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 243; Black nationalism competed with the church for leadership of Black resistance — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1046 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Black Baptist church leaders were Gramscian organic intellectuals rooted among the masses #expands (0.85) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 242
• Black nationalism competed with the church for leadership of Black resistance #complicates (0.80) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1046
• Male denominational leaders tried to subordinate autonomous black women’s organizations #complicates (0.75) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 738
• Black religious leadership directly fueled slave rebellions in early nineteenth-century America #qualifies (0.72) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1032