Re: AH Challenge: Make the South Religious. [DBWI]

Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 16:56:56 -0500 (CDT)
Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if
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Coyu is right. I should have mentioned the historically black churches
that continued to profess Christ despite the South's Intolerance.
Helen Keller, the singing evangelist of the early twentieth century, was
inspired by Christian services held in swamps and barns by Negro
preachers and their congregagtions. That gospel music from her Alabama
childhood influenced her later output considerably.
Hank Williams was another Southerner. Put in jail sixteen times for
"public disturbances" -- attending integrated church services -- Hank
Williams got on a bus and went to Castro Street in San Francisco. Now
revered as a founder of the Redneck Jesus Community of San Francisco,
Hank Williams spent years at low wage, no future jobs before he became
celebrated for his gospel music.
But Keller and Williams were only the white tip of a black iceberg.
There is a museum in Washington DC on the survival of churches during
the Intolerance and what is remarkable is how few White faces there are
in the pictures of Christians. If it hadn't happened, it would seem
incredible that Jackson's anti-God messages would have been so
successful. But somehow Whites imbibed prejudice against religion as
easily as they absorbed prejudice against Negroes.
Rev. Paul Robson was the Black Apostle, the leader of American
resistance to Intolerance. Despite the indifference of three presidents,
and active opposition from one president, Rev. Robeson kept fighting
Intolerance within the system. Once he won his big breakthrough and got
a hospital chartered in South Carolina that was openly affiliated with
the Baptists, the rest of the evil structure collapsed within fifteen
years.