- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Identifying Race and Religion
- Religion and Race in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic
- Religion, Race, and American Empire
- Gendering the History of Race and Religion
- Religion, Race, and Sexuality
- Religion, Race, and Popular Culture
- Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century America
- American Missionaries and Race
- Mormonism and Race
- Catholicism and Race
- American Judaism and Race
- Islam and Race in American History
- Buddhism and Race
- Religion, Race, and Humanism
- Religion and Race in American Music
- Documentary Photography and the Visual Politics of Race and Religion
- Race, Religion, and Documentary Film
- Religion, Race, and Sports
- Natives, Religion, and Race in Colonial America
- African and African American Religions in the Early Americas
- Religion and Race in the Greater South, 1500–1800
- Puritans and Race
- Religion and Racial Violence in the Nineteenth Century
- African American Religions in the Nineteenth Century
- Race, Gender, and the Hawaiian Islands Mission
- Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965
- South Asian Religions in Contemporary America
- African American Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement
- Black Theologies
- Native American Religions in the Twentieth Century
- Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- Religion, Race, and Immigration in Contemporary America
- Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter explores the history of humanism within African American communities. It positions humanist thinking and humanism-inspired activism as a significant way in which people of African descent in the United States have addressed issues of racial injustice. Beginning with critiques of theism found within the blues, moving through developments such as the literature produced by Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, and others, to political activists such as W. E. B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, to organized humanism in the form of African American involvement in the Unitarian Universalist Association, African Americans for Humanism, and so on, this chapter presents the historical and institutional development of African American humanism.
Keywords: humanism, Unitarian Universalist Association, African American humanism, activism, racial injustice, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, W. E. B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph
Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religion at Rice University. He is the author of numerous books, including Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion, and Popular Culture.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Identifying Race and Religion
- Religion and Race in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic
- Religion, Race, and American Empire
- Gendering the History of Race and Religion
- Religion, Race, and Sexuality
- Religion, Race, and Popular Culture
- Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century America
- American Missionaries and Race
- Mormonism and Race
- Catholicism and Race
- American Judaism and Race
- Islam and Race in American History
- Buddhism and Race
- Religion, Race, and Humanism
- Religion and Race in American Music
- Documentary Photography and the Visual Politics of Race and Religion
- Race, Religion, and Documentary Film
- Religion, Race, and Sports
- Natives, Religion, and Race in Colonial America
- African and African American Religions in the Early Americas
- Religion and Race in the Greater South, 1500–1800
- Puritans and Race
- Religion and Racial Violence in the Nineteenth Century
- African American Religions in the Nineteenth Century
- Race, Gender, and the Hawaiian Islands Mission
- Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965
- South Asian Religions in Contemporary America
- African American Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement
- Black Theologies
- Native American Religions in the Twentieth Century
- Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- Religion, Race, and Immigration in Contemporary America
- Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism
- Index
