I believe James H. Cone was for African Americans and black theology. James H. Cone and all African Americans were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. I believe all of them liked how Martin Luther King Jr was courageous and brave fighting for their civil rights. The African Americans wanted to be treated equally like everyone else. They wanted their own beliefs and traditions. James H. Cone along with the African Americans believed that they should not follow white churches. They all thought that they should not follow white churches and follow in their own black churches because they thought their black theology was born with them. African American did not want any other race controlling their beliefs or the way they live. I like James H. Cone ideas of following and creating their own black church and not following the white church. They wanted to follow their beliefs and be treated equally as everyone else in the world.

In chapter 52, Wallace D. Muhammad talks about how he and the nation of Islam want to be free in the new world. All they wanted was their own self-government. I have found this chapter to be interesting because how Wallace D. Muhammad and nation of Islam make that push to become their own country. Muhammad did not push to make Islam their own country just by fighting and doing anything violent. In my opinion, he did it in a more wiser way. He taught the nation of Islam how something you start of with is weak and small and then it grows and gets stronger over time. I think that lesson helped the nation of Islam become free and have their own self-government.

I really enjoyed reading Sernett’s reading on Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. went to and got locked up in Birmingham Jail for leading the civil rights movement. Even though he got locked up in Birmingham Jail, I liked how he encouraged the black community to keep fighting for they believe in having the same amount of power as white people do. Martin Luther King Jr doesn’t lead a raid to make African Americans get their balance of power that they deserve. Instead, he does it in a more nonviolent way. He leads a march of black people fighting for what they believe in. In my opinion, Martin Luther King Jr, trying to fight for power lead to the creation of black power. Black people were sick and tired of the problem of having little power.

The cults and the sects had to fill in for fighting for the black people to have their own religion after Garveynism ended and black denominations have yet to still be reached out to America. I really liked how the cults and the sects have filled the void of taking over of what the back people believed in. The black people wanted to have their own religion of Christianity and to me, the cults and the sects also started filling black people into the negro churches. The negro churches started to grow because of numerous black people filling up the negro churches. I also like how the cults and the sects had not just black people but also people of mixed races helping them out. I founded cool that even women contributed and had leadership roles in helping black people have their own religion of Christianity. Even though some leaders leading their cult or sect died, people in the cults and sects still keep pushing to fight for what the black people believed in.

In my opinion, I really like and I definitely have some respect for Marcus Garvey. As a kid and finally, when he became a man, he was learning about his African American race. Marcus started to figure out how black people were being treated over the world. He found out black people were being treated unfairly over the world and he did not find like that at all. I had mad respect for Marcus Garvey because he really wanted black people to be treated fairly and to be admired and appreciated. For him to get black people treated equally and respected more, he created the Universal Negro Improvement Association, so they can create their own country of black people and their own country of black people with their own black government. Marcus Garvey was a well-respected leader for that organization. He strived for African Americans to be equal and he is a person I definitely have respect for because of his bravery to fight for black people being treated fairly over the world.

For the African American community, W.E.B. DuBois sees the Negro church as an important image for the African American community. African Americans utilized the African American church to build up their beliefs and their aspirations, even though the Negro church was used to boost the capitulation of white people. One of their aspirations was to be free from the wrongdoings during the time. The African Americans also expected they would achieve all their desired civil rights. African Americans made their own religion of Christianity. They believed on three things that represented the slave religion of Christianity. One was the Preacher, which was the center of the Negro church. The second one was the music, which they will sing at the church. The third one is the Frenzy, in which African Americans shouted when the Spirit of the Lord passed by them.

Amanda Berry Smith was a slave who was born in 1839. She inspired ample amount of  women. Amanda Smith was known as a great and respected leader for women in public ministry. She encountered a religious transformation and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She preached in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Amanda also preached in meetings of Methodists and Holiness teachings. She found it really hard to overcome gender bias because of her skin color and her being a woman herself. Amanda Berry Smith preached to black and white audiences, and she was known as a very popular speaker to both black and white audiences. Her only purpose was evangelism.

The first national gathering of people in America was the Black Catholic Congress, held in January, in 1889, at St. Augustine Church in Washington, D.C. The driving force behind these gatherings was Daniel Rudd. In 1886, Rudd founded the American Catholic Tribune, a newspaper for African-American Catholics. At the congress, Reverend Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized African-American priest, celebrated Solemn Mass. The congresses were a coming of age moment for African-American Catholics.

https://youtu.be/Wycj8HOTv3w

Free blacks in the Antebellum period were quite outspoken about the injustice of slavery. Their ability to express themselves, however, was determined by whether they lived in the North or the South. Free Southern blacks continued to live under the shadow of slavery, unable to travel or assemble as freely as those in the North. It was also more difficult for them to organize and sustain churches. During the Antebellum period black churches, not just in the North, but throughout the nation, offered African Americans refuge from oppression and focused on the spiritual, secular, and political concerns of the black community. Following emancipation, the church continued to exist at the center of black community life. Free blacks merged their resources to build greater numbers of independent black churches which are symbols of African-American demands for independence.