Session 1: The Suppression of African Diaspora Religions
Throughout American history, African diaspora religions have been misunderstood, disparaged, and criminalized by government actors and the public. In this session, learn how legal restrictions have both stifled and shaped African diaspora religions in the U.S., from 19th-century “Voodoo” in New Orleans to 20th-century Santería in Florida.
About the speakers
Kodi Roberts is Associate Professor of History at Louisiana State University. He was awarded undergraduate degrees in History and Religious Studies from LSU, a Masters in History from the University of New Orleans, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago. His work focuses on intersections of race, religion, and resistance in African American History. His book Voodoo & Power: the Politics of Religion in New Orleans, 1881-1940 (LSU Press, 2015) looks at the racialization of Voodoo in Depression-era New Orleans and the parallel inculcation of contemporary local culture into the rituals of Voodoo practitioners. He is also currently working on a study of the overlap between religious engagement and educational opportunities inside Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Danielle N. Boaz is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she offers courses on human rights, social justice, and the law. Dr. Boaz is the author of Banning Black Gods: Law and Religions of the African Diaspora and Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur. Her website tracks cases of discrimination and violence against Afro-Brazilian religions. Dr. Boaz is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Africana Religions.
Key Takeaways
Portrait of a Creole Woman with Madras Tignon, (George Catlin c. 1837), previously thought to depict Marie Laveau, the “Voodoo Queen” of New Orleans.
African diaspora religions have been persecuted throughout U.S. history. This discrimination has taken varied forms: from the prosecution of Voodoo practitioners in the 19th century under laws banning fraud and the unlicensed practice of medicine, to recent cases where family courts have claimed that African diaspora religious practices, such as animal sacrifice, are harmful to children.
Pernicious stereotypes about African diaspora religions have fueled this history of discrimination. The widespread but meritless claim that such religions practiced “human sacrifice,” for example, helped to justify prosecutions of religious practitioners domestically as well as military interventions abroad, such as the U.S. occupation of Haiti.
Persecution by state actors has had an impact on African diaspora religious practices. For example, in the 1920s and 30s, religious innovators like Leafy Anderson created a new model of New Orleans “Voodoo” called the spiritual church movement. This movement relied on formal institutions and church buildings to help legitimate and protect what had previously been hidden, often criminalized religious practices.
Reflection Questions
What did you know about African diaspora religions before watching this video? What stereotypes have you heard about these religions? Did anything you learned about the history and practices of African diaspora religions surprise you?
How has racism affected the practice of African diaspora religions during various points in U.S. history? To reverse this: how have stereotypes about African diaspora religions been used to fuel racist domestic and international policies?
When and how have the First Amendment and other religious liberty laws protected African diaspora religions? When, how, and why have they failed to do so?
Botánica shop selling Santería ritual items, Little Havana, Miami, Florida (1980).
Further Reading
Danielle N. Boaz, Banning Black Gods: Law and Religions of the African Diaspora (2021)
Danielle N. Boaz, Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur (2023)
Kodi Roberts, Voodoo and Power: The Politics of Religion in New Orleans, 1881-1940 (2015)
Watched this session of the curriculum and have some thoughts? We’d love to hear from you.