This Worldwide Struggle
Religion and the International Roots of the Civil Rights Movement
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:6th Jul '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This Worldwide Struggle: Religion and the International Roots of the Civil Rights Movement examines a group of black Christian intellectuals and activists who looked abroad, even to other religious traditions, for ideas and practices that could transform American democracy. From the 1930s to the 1950s, this core group drew lessons from independence movements around for the world for an American campaign that would be part of a global network of resistance to colonialism and white supremacy. This book argues that their religious perspectives and methods of moral reasoning developed a theological blueprint for what Bayard Rustin called the "classical phase" of the Civil Rights Movement. Existing scholarship on the book's main figures, including Howard Thurman, Benjamin Mays, and William Stuart Nelson, pioneers of African American Christian nonviolence James Farmer, Pauli Murray, and Bayard Rustin, and YWCA leaders Juliette Derricotte and Sue Bailey Thurman, focuses on individuals and misses important streams of influence and creative collaborations. This book traces fertile intersections of worldwide resistance movements, explores American racial politics and interreligious exchanges that crossed literal borders and disciplinary boundaries, enriches our understanding of the international roots of the Civil Rights Movement, and offers lessons on the role of religion in justice movements.
Azaransky's book is both an inspiration and a caution to those interested in the ongoing struggle for justice anywhere--economic, racial, gender or environmental. Her exploration of her subjects' early lives gives the reader a way to connect with their own sources of spiritual, religious and moral energy, stamina and courage. Her depiction of the huge network of connections and relationships across cities, countries and continents reminds activists and allies of the importance of the need for solidarity, humility and communication with allies. * Robin Wardlaw, Touchstone Journal *
Sarah has written an exceptional text tracing the personal, political, and intellectual exchange of ideas between liberation movements in India and West Africa and the religious leaders and activists who would provide the foundations for and lead the Civil Rights Movement in the United States ... Those interested in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, Black theology in the 20th century, and global anticolonial networks in the first half of the 20th century will find this text indispensable. * James McCarty, Reading Religion *
Azaransky's sterling book represents nothing less than a significant reframing of the US Civil Rights Movement. Her lucid telling renders visible the conditions that made the King era of civil rights possible... Of special note, too, is the role the Howard University School of Religion plays as an intellectual and activist center. Any future account of the academic study of religion in the US must now include Howard's role in shaping the field. Highly recommended. * J. Kahn, CHOICE *
[A] rewarding historical study...This Worldwide Struggle makes several interventions in religious and social ethics. It addresses the gap in histories of black internationalism which overlook religious intellectuals and in peace movement histories which ignore racial speci?city. It contributes to civil rights studies' consideration of this generation of religious thinkers, further expanding what Jacquelyn Dowd Hall calls the 'long civil rights movement' through an international moral geography. * Tyler Davis, Reviews in Religion & Theology *
ISBN: 9780190262204
Dimensions: 239mm x 152mm x 31mm
Weight: 540g
296 pages