Highbrow Magazine - Georgia https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/georgia en The Ebenezer Baptist Church Has Been a Seat of Black Power for Generations https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11207-ebenezer-baptist-church-has-been-seat-black-power-generations <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/18/2021 - 16:28</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3mlk_dick_demarsico_-_wikimedia.jpg?itok=acIC0nen"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3mlk_dick_demarsico_-_wikimedia.jpg?itok=acIC0nen" width="373" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>The high-stakes U.S. Senate race in Georgia catapulted the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church back into the spotlight. For 135 years, the church played a vital role in the fight against racism and the civil rights movement. It was the spiritual home of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is now the home of the state’s first Black senator – the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at the church.</p> <p> </p> <p>As a scholar of African-American religion and Christian theology, I believe it is important to understand how the Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a seat of Black power and organizing for generations in Atlanta.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4mlk_counse_-_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>‘Stone of help’</strong></p> <p>Ebenezer Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American congregation, was founded in 1886, nearly 20 years after the end of the Civil War. The pastor, Rev. John Andrew Parker, served as Ebenezer’s first pastor from 1886 to 1894. Little is known about Parker and Ebenezer’s early years. But according to historian Benjamin C. Ridgeway, Parker organized the church in a small building located on Airline Avenue in Atlanta.</p> <p> </p> <p>The name Ebenezer, meaning “stone of help,” comes from the Hebrew Bible. In the First Book of Samuel, the Israelites are said to have gathered in the town of Mizpah to offer burnt offerings to God. When their enemies, the Philistines, received notice that the Israelites were in Mizpah, they sent forces to attack them.</p> <p> </p> <p>With God’s help, the Philistines were eventually defeated. Prophet Samuel then named a large stone “Ebenezer” to remind the Israelites of God’s intervention in their battle against the Philistine army.</p> <p> </p> <p>As historians Roswell F. Jackson and Rosalyn M. Patterson observed in their 1989 article, “The selection of the name Ebenezer, ‘Stone of help,’ was profoundly prophetic.” In their view, Ebenezer’s name proved fitting to describe the role the church would come to have in the subsequent civil rights movement.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Growth of the church</strong></p> <p>The Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, the maternal grandfather of King, served as second pastor from 1894 to 1931. Williams led the Ebenezer Church into the 20th century as a religious community mobilized to fight the segregationist policies plaguing the African-American community in the state of Georgia.</p> <p> </p> <p>By 1913, the church had grown from 13 to nearly 750 members. Williams developed a distinct form of the social gospel, which emphasized the importance of African Americans owning businesses and taking social action against racial and economic injustice in their local communities.</p> <p> </p> <p>Known for his powerful preaching, impressive organizing and leadership skills, Williams led several initiatives, including boycotts against a local Atlanta newspaper, “The Georgian,” which was known for using racist language against African Americans.</p> <p> </p> <p>In 1906, Williams led a fight to end the white primary system which prohibited African Americans from voting in the Georgia primaries. In 1917, Williams helped establish the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP.</p> <p> </p> <p>A year later, he was elected as branch president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, and, within five months of his tenure, the chapter’s membership grew to 1,400.</p> <p> </p> <p>As religious historian Lewis Baldwin remarks in his book, <em>The Voice of Conscience</em>, “Clearly, Williams used the [Ebenezer] church as a power base and rallying point for such activities, an approach that would also be used by [Martin Luther] King, Sr. and King, Jr.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2mlk_jjonahjackalope_-_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:451px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Working for social change</strong></p> <p>Following Williams’s death in 1931, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., Ebenezer’s assistant pastor and Williams’s son-in-law, became the church’s third pastor. During his 40-year tenure as pastor, “Daddy” King, as he was affectionately known, led Ebenezer with a mixture of evangelical faith and progressive social action.</p> <p> </p> <p>Finding warrant for social action in the Christian scriptures, King Sr. challenged other Black churches to embrace the social gospel – a late 19th-century Protestant movement that emphasized the application of the Christian message to the social and moral concerns of society.</p> <p> </p> <p>Moreover, King Sr. led marches and rallies to protest discriminatory and segregationist policies in the city of Atlanta, including the desegregation of the Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Board of Education. In the first 15 years of King Sr.‘s pastorate at Ebenezer, church membership grew to 3,700.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1mlk_us_national_records_archive_-_wikipedia.jpg" style="height:476px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>MLK’s spiritual home</strong></p> <p>Ebenezer came into the global spotlight when Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the call to join his father as co-pastor in 1960. Before then, King had pastored Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, from 1954 to 1959.</p> <p> </p> <p>During his tenure at Dexter Avenue, King served as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization which successfully led the Montgomery Bus Boycott from Dec. 5, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956. In 1959, King resigned from his position as pastor at Dexter Avenue to serve alongside his father as well as serve as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is also based in Atlanta.</p> <p> </p> <p>From the pulpit of Ebenezer, King preached some of his more memorable sermons. In one of his sermons published in a collection titled <em>The Strength to Love</em>, King describes racial prejudice as indicative of “softmindedness,” a person’s tendency to uncritically adhere to unsupportable beliefs.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the same sermon, titled “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,” King argued, “Race prejudice is based on groundless fears, suspicions, and misunderstandings.” To overcome this, King argued that human beings must cultivate both a tough mind and a tender heart, a joining of a critical mind with a concern for fellow human beings.</p> <p> </p> <p>This message reverberates in contemporary movements for racial equity and justice, including the Black Lives Matter movement. While many BLM members are not affiliated with any organized religion, the movement emphasizes the importance of spiritual wellness for African Americans as they fight for Black liberation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Since its inception, Ebenezer Baptist Church has been an institution in which evangelical fervor and progressive social activism joined to foster societal change.</p> <p> </p> <p>This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the spiritual home of King from hosting the annual commemorative service in honor of the slain civil rights leader, which usually draws 1,700 attendees. But attention to the church has been renewed following the election of Pastor Warnock to the U.S. Senate.</p> <p> </p> <p>One cannot appreciate the importance of Martin Luther King Day without understanding the tradition that formed one of America’s most influential civil rights leaders.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Jason Oliver Evans is a Ph.D. Student in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This article was originally published in </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-ebenezer-baptist-church-has-been-a-seat-of-black-power-for-generations-in-atlanta-152804" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Conversation</a><em>. It’s republished here with permission under a Creative Commons license.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>--Dick DeMarsico (Library of Congress, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS_2.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>--U.S. National Archives and Record Administration (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Civil_Rights_March_on_Washington,_D.C._(Dr._Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._and_Mathew_Ahmann_in_a_crowd.)_-_NARA_-_542015_-_Restoration.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikipedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>--JJonah Jackalope (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ebenezer_Baptist_Church_sign.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>--Counse (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ebenezer_Baptist_Church_at_sunset.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/martin-luther-king" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">martin luther king</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ebenezer-baptist-church" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ebenezer baptist church</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/reverend-warnock" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">reverend warnock</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/georgia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Georgia</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-power" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black power</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/naacp" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NAACP</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/segregation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">segregation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jason Oliver Evans</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 18 Jan 2021 21:28:02 +0000 tara 10116 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11207-ebenezer-baptist-church-has-been-seat-black-power-generations#comments The Dangerous Rise of 'Hostile' Immigration and Anti-Choice Laws in Several States https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1084-dangerous-rise-hostile-immigration-and-anti-choice-laws-several-states <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 15:25</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumprochoice.jpg?itok=fYexqeV4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumprochoice.jpg?itok=fYexqeV4" width="480" height="313" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> 2011 saw a record number of laws restricting abortion in U.S. states. It also saw a record number of state anti-immigrant laws. Coincidence? Maybe not.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In 2011, U.S. states enacted 135 new reproductive health provisions, 92 of them seeking to restrict abortion.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In 2000, 13 states were considered “hostile” to reproductive rights; by 2011, that number had doubled to 26 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Last year, more than half of women of reproductive age (15-44) were living in states that were hostile to abortion, up from less than one-third in 2000.</p> <p>  </p> <p> This <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/15/1/gpr150114-maps.html">map</a> shows the trend toward restricting reproductive rights, primarily in the Midwest and the South. Of the 13 states in the South, half were considered hostile to reproductive rights in 2000; all had become hostile by 2011.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But 2011 was also a record year for anti-immigrant legislation. Five states (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah) passed anti-immigrant bills modeled after Arizona’s 2010 law, SB 1070. An analysis by <em>Mother Jones</em> found that 164 anti-immigration laws were passed by state legislatures in 2010 and 2011. The map can be viewed <a href="http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/anti-immigration-law-database">here</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It turns out these maps look strikingly similar. Here’s a look at five states where anti-immigrant and anti-choice efforts converge:</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>1.</strong> <strong>Alabama </strong>– In 2011, Alabama passed HB 56, considered to be the nation’s strictest state immigration law. It also enacted legislation banning abortion at 20 weeks from fertilization.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>2.</strong> <strong>Indiana</strong> – In 2011, Indiana enacted an anti-immigrant law modeled after Arizona’s SB 1070. A federal judge blocked part of the law last summer, shortly before it was set to take effect. Indiana enacted legislation banning abortion at 20 weeks from fertilization.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>3.</strong> <strong>Georgia</strong> is about to become the sixth state to ban abortion at 20 weeks from fertilization, with no exemptions for rape or incest. The Georgia House and Senate passed the bill, and it’s now on its way to Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who is expected to sign it into law. Last year, Deal signed into law another controversial bill in Georgia – the state’s Arizona-inspired anti-immigrant law HB 87.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>4.</strong> <strong>Arizona</strong> –The first state to pass an anti-immigrant state law, SB 1070, making it illegal to be an undocumented immigrant in the state -- is now cracking down on reproductive rights. The Arizona state Senate passed a 20-week abortion restriction, which is now heading to the House. In 2011, Arizona required doctors to be in the same room as the patient when prescribing medication abortion. It also moved to require that a woman obtain an ultrasound prior to having an abortion. Last month, the Arizona Senate narrowly defeated a bill that would have allowed employers to drop health insurance coverage for birth control.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumundocumentedimmigrants.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 398px; " /></p> <p> On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments over Arizona’s immigration law. Gov. Jan Brewer is challenging a ruling by a federal judge that blocked parts of the state law, and she is taking the case to the Supreme Court in a decision that is expected to have a ripple effect on the other five Arizona-style state laws. (A federal court in Atlanta announced they wouldn’t even rule on challenges to the Alabama and Georgia laws until they heard the Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>5.</strong> <strong>Mississippi </strong>almost passed an anti-immigrant state law, which was derailed in 2011, thanks in part to opposition by <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2011/04/black-legislators-on-the-frontline-of-battle-against-az-style-immigration-bills.php">African-American legislators</a>. Another Arizona-style anti-immigrant bill died in the state Senate this week. In 2011, Mississippi voters defeated an initiative that would have restricted women’s access to both abortion and contraception by defining the term “person” under the state constitution as “every human being from the moment of fertilization.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> What do these states have in common? They reflect a shift in demographics. Although they don’t have the largest immigrant populations in the country – in fact, far from it -- these states have experienced the biggest percentage increase in new immigrants.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> That’s because immigrants are increasingly settling outside of the traditional destinations of California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois. They are moving instead to the “new destination” states in the South and central United States: North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nevada, South Carolina, Kentucky, Nebraska, Alabama and Utah.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the 2000s, the immigrant population in those states grew by about twice the national rate.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And when it comes to growth in the Latino population, it’s worth noting that the two states that saw the biggest increase in Latinos enacted two of the strictest immigration laws in the country. Alabama saw a <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1940/hispanic-united-states-population-growth-2010-census">145-percent increase</a> in its Latino population between 2000 and 2010, the second-highest Latino growth rate in the nation, after South Carolina.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Now, as the election approaches, voters could get a chance to vote out legislators who passed these laws. Except that these are also the same states that passed <a href="http://www.aclu.org/maps/2011-voting-rights-under-attack-state-legislatures">new rules at the voting booths</a> that will make it harder for minority voters to cast their ballots in November.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/04/a-trend-toward-anti-immigrant-anti-choice-laws.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pro-choice" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pro choice</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pro-abortion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pro abortion</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pro-life" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pro life</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anti-immigration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">anti immigration</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arizona" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Arizona</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/indiana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Indiana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mississippi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mississippi</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alabama-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Al;abama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/georgia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Georgia</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Elena Shore</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fotopedia</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:25:56 +0000 tara 746 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1084-dangerous-rise-hostile-immigration-and-anti-choice-laws-several-states#comments