From MLK to today, the March on Washington highlights the evolution of activism by Black churches

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, speaks to thousands of people during his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington, August 28, 1963. (AP)

The March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech — and thus as a crowning moment for the long-term civil rights activism of what is sometimes referred to as the “Black Church.”

At the march, King indeed represented numerous other Black clergy who were his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But the march was the product of sustained activism by a broader coalition. Black and white labor leaders, as well as white clergy, played pivotal roles over many months ahead of the event.

The Rev. Martin Luther King, center, speaks with the media at the Southern Christian Leadership convention in Savannah, Ga., on Sept. 29, 1964. The March on Washington of 1963 was the product of sustained activism by broad coalition. (AP, File)

Moreover, the Black Church was not monolithic then — nor is it now. Many Black pastors and their congregations steered clear of civil disobedience and other nonviolent confrontational tactics in the civil rights era, just as some now steer clear of the Black Lives Matter movement and shun progressive Black pastors’ engagement on behalf of abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

“The issues are multiracial. It’s too simplistic now to say, “Black church/white church,’” said the Rev. William Barber, who in 2018 became co-chair of a national anti-poverty initiative called The Poor People’s Campaign. It took its name from a movement launched by King and other SCLC leaders in 1968 shortly before King’s assassination.

Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Al Sharpton lead the march during the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Tom Brenner/For the Washington Post )

Barber, now director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, admires King immensely yet is critical of those who “water down the March on Washington to one man, one speech.”

“That’s a political strategy to undermine the purpose of mass protest,” he said. “It must be a mass movement, not just a mass moment.”

Barber said the new manifestation of the Poor People’s Campaign has drawn active support from thousands of clergy of different races and faiths.

“There are Jews, Quakers, some predominantly white congregations that are pro-civil rights and pro-LGBT community — that care about immigrants and women’s rights and voting rights,” he said. “Any efforts today that are not engaging all these issues on an every day basis is not truly moving in the spirit of the March on Washington.”

In the decades before and after 1963, Black churches and denominations have had diverse priorities and political approaches.

Many Black faith leaders in the early 1900s supported Booker T. Washington’s call for Black progress to occur through education and economic self-sufficiency, rather than through direct challenges to segregation laws. In later decades, self-sufficiency was touted by the Nation of Islam as part of its advocacy of Black Nationalism. Some other Black pastors — notably Father Divine and Reverend Ike — became wealthy with optimistic promises of heaven-on-earth prosperity for their followers.

Currently, there are large numbers of Black pastors in two different categories, according to Robert Franklin, professor of moral leadership at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. Some of them, Franklin says, engage energetically in social-justice activism, envisioning themselves as “prophetic radicals” in the tradition of King.

Others have a more conservative, individualistic outlook, Franklin said. “They are a little mushy on the activism and the risk-taking.”

“In many respects, they have declared victory, purchased their own buildings,” he said. “There are fewer prophetic sermons and more concern with institutional maintenance. ‘How to do we keep the lights on, pay the bills.’”

One notable trend in recent decades has been a rise in the number of multiracial congregations across the country. King’s former church in Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church, is among them, drawing increasing numbers of white and Hispanic worshippers.

Barber suggested King would be pleased by that.

“Dr. King was fighting for the beloved community which included all people regardless of race,” Barber said. “He brought in everybody from different faiths and traditions.”

“The Black Church was the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement, which is why we are resolved to play a continued role in the fight for equality,” said the Conference of National Black Churches board.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is responsible for this content.