Breaking White Supremacy

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel

Bibliographic Data

ID4976388
AuthorsKimberly K Little (Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume105
Issue4
Pages1082-1083
Publication date2019-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jahist/jaz138
OpenAlexW2916364237
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Gary Dorrien's impressive book is one of the first to examine how the black social gospel shaped much of progressive Christianity, the movement for black liberation, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s theological approach to his social, political, economic, and pacifist activism. Dorrien traces this influential theology in biographical portraits of men, such as Howard Thurman, Benjamin E. Mays (whom King called his spiritual mentor), Mordecai Johnson, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who preceded King in attempts at dismantling white supremacy, as well as men and women who continued their work battling white supremacy after his assassination. Although Breaking White Supremacy reads like an intellectual history, Dorrien has actually crafted a biography of the black social gospel through examining its central role in multiple figures' interpretation of Ghandian nonviolence, which served as the ideological underpinnings of both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and black liberation theology. The book relies heavily on theological and philosophical discourse, often spending pages explaining a particular theological perspective on racism or using biblical exegesis to elucidate an individual minister's perspective. Perhaps unusual in a traditional biography or intellectual history, this tactic greatly enhances Dorrien's tome. Breaking White Supremacy begins in the early twentieth century, with a biographical portrait of Johnson, and ends in the mid-1970s with the work and life of Pauli Murray. Closing with Murray is an interesting choice, as her legacy in reorienting the black social gospel within womanist theology often goes unnoticed in histories of her contributions to both the civil rights and feminist movements. Such a conclusion not only strengthens Dorrien's work but it also demonstrates the depth and scope of his approach to the centrality of the black social gospel to the major political movements of the twentieth century. Ending the book with Murray does raise the question of why other women, such as Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Diane Nash, who also embraced the black social gospel were overlooked

Art history · Biography · Christianity · Evangelism · Gospel · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Racism · Social Gospel · Sociology · Theology · White (mutation · White supremacy · American Political and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Religious studies · Religious Studies

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