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What is the author's purpose in writing his book? What is his thesis, that is, what is Best's argument in his book?
Why did Chicago become the most important destination for southern blacks during the Great Migration? What was the relationship between class and religion among urban blacks, according to sociologists? What was their "rigid binarism"? How does Best try to correct this interpretation between class and religion?
How did southern black migrants influence the institutional structure and worship practices of the already established mainline African American Protestant churches? How did the South remain the focal point of the identity of urban black migrants? Describe how the diffusion of rural, southern religiosity and ethos within the established black churches served as a way for southern black migrants to assert their common identities and to differentiate themselves from urban northerners.
Explain scholars' description of black religion as other-worldly or compensatory. How does Best argue against that interpretation? How did urban black churches come to have such a large emphasis on pragmatic social engagement, similar to white mainline Protestant churches influenced by the Social Gospel? Why did many black churches develop close ties with black businesses and institute their own social service programs?
What significant changes did the sheer number of Southern migrants force almost all black churches to make? How did non-Southern black churchgoers feel about the changes? Describe how accommodation to Southern styles of music, preaching, and worship affected the growth of churches, and resistance to them caused decline. Identify Mahalia Jackson and Thomas A. Dorsey and their significance. What role did radio play?
Why does Best turn his attention to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago? What did its case illustrate? Why did this church respond to the Great Migration in the way that it did? what price did it pay?
What point was illustrated by the highly successful ministries of two of Chicago's most important African American women pastors, Elder Lucy Smith and Reverend Mary G. Evans? Compare and contrast their ministries and their churches. How did the religious situation in Chicago open up opportunities for women that would not have been possible elsewhere or at other times?
What did the response to Elder Lucy Smith's death signify? To what changes in urban black religion did her life illlustrate? What does Best conclude about migration, urbanization, and religious change? Describe the ways that, in the early decades of the twentieth century, what we today call "black culture" was being created. Identify Reverend Clarence Cobbs and his significance.
What has been the fate of many black migration-era Chicago churches?
Last updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 02:01 PM