The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885-1912 (Studies in Religion) [Hardcover]

Ralph E. Luker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Studies in Religion | Publication Date: November 1991

In a major revision of accepted wisdom, this book, originally published by UNC Press in 1991, demonstrates that American social Christianity played an important role in racial reform during the period between Emancipation and the civil rights movement.

As organizations created by the heirs of antislavery sentiment foundered in the mid-1890s, Ralph Luker argues, a new generation of black and white reformers—many of them representatives of American social christianity—explored a variety of solutions to the problem of racial conflict. Some of them helped to organize the Federal Council of Churches in 1909, while others returned to abolitionist and home missionary strategies in organizing the NAACP in 1910 and the National Urban League in 1911. A half century later, such organizations formed the institutional core of America's civil rights movement. Luker also shows that the black prophets of social Christianity who espoused theological personalism created an influential tradition that eventually produced Martin Luther King Jr.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[Luker] has given the proper prescription to cure the astigmatism of the historians looking at the social gospel.

Christian Century

[M]akes a good case for broadening the definition of the Social Gospel to include the white and African-American reformers.

American Historical Review

Massive, thoroughly documented, clearly written, [and] judicious.

Church History

He presents the social gospel spokesmen in all their diversity, black and white, conservative and liberal, enthusiastic and agonizing.

Louis R. Harlan, University of Maryland at College Park

[T]his is the most thorough study yet done of religion and racial reform in the Social Gospel era.

David W. Wills, Amherst College --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Examines the impact of the new wave of black and white reformers, many of them social Christians, who struggled for solutions to America•s racial problems between 1885 and 1912. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 445 pages
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807819786
• ISBN-13: 978-0807819784
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,424,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly researched, April 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885-1912 (Studies in Religion) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful history of the social gospel movement and how it dealt with the issue of race. Most noteworthy, in my opinion, is its wonderful bibliography - combined with the citations, this totals over 100 pages, providing great references for anyone who wishes to research the topic (as I recently did for a class).