Session 5: Religious Liberty & Civil Rights
The Civil Rights Movement mobilized religion to advance not just religious liberty rights, but all the rights and freedoms ensconced in the U.S. Constitution. In this session, learn how the Black freedom struggle could be seen as “religious freedom on its feet,” and how this expansive notion of religious liberty clashed with that advanced by J. Edgar Hoover and other proponents of Christian nationalism.
About the speakers
Corey D. B. Walker is Dean of the School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and Inaugural Director of the Program in African American Studies at Wake Forest University. His research, teaching, and public scholarship span the areas of American and African American social and religious thought, ethics, and religion and American public life. An accomplished scholar and academic leader, Dean Walker has held faculty and academic leadership appointments at Brown University, University of Virginia, Virginia Union University, and Winston-Salem State University and visiting professorships at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and the University of Richmond. Recently, the Phi Beta Kappa Society named Dean Walker as the 2023-2024 Phi Beta Kappa/Frank M. Updike Memorial Scholar. He is author and editor of several books and has published over sixty articles, essays, and book chapters in a wide variety of scholarly journals and publications.
Lerone A. Martin is the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor in Religious Studies and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. His most recent book, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism was published in February 2023 by Princeton University Press. The book has garnered praise from numerous publications including The Nation, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, Publisher’s Weekly, and History Today. His commentary and writing have been featured on The NBC Today Show, The History Channel, PBS, CSPAN, Newsy, NBCLX, as well as in The New York Times, Boston Globe, CNN.com, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently serves as Senior Editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, and advisor on the upcoming PBS documentary series The History of Gospel Music & Preaching. Lerone is currently working on a nonfiction book and an adapted graphic novel about the adolescence and calling of Martin Luther King, Jr., both to be published by HarperCollins.
Key Takeaways
Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama (Peter Pettus, 1963), Library of Congress.
As quoted in this session, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that the church “is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” In this spirit, the motto of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was “To Save the Soul of America.” Such a conception of the church’s role in politics demonstrated a commitment to both freedom of religion and church-state separation.
In contrast to the model of religious liberty adopted by civil rights leaders, some political figures–including FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover–promoted conservative white Christianity while trampling religious dissent. Hoover, who contributed articles to Christianity Today and held Christian retreats and events at the FBI, was considered in his time a kind of “spiritual guru.” Under his leadership, the FBI surveilled and sought to disrupt numerous religious groups, leaders, and movements that challenged the status quo.
Religious liberty is not a purely domestic matter. Civil rights leaders in the U.S. both inspired and took inspiration from religious movements and leaders across the globe, from Mahatma Gandhi in India to Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana. So too, conservative leaders responded to global trends—and especially the fear of communism—in their approach to religious freedom law and rhetoric.
Reflection Questions
In what ways could the Civil Rights Movement, in the words of Speaker Corey D. B. Walker, be seen as “religious freedom marching”? How was religious freedom leveraged to advance other rights and freedoms? Do you see any examples of “religious freedom marching” today?
Do you agree with King’s quote that faith communities should be “not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state”? How should we balance the right of people of faith to fight for policies that reflect their values with the public commitment to church-state separation?
In the 1968 case Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises discussed by Dr. Martin, a restaurant owner argued that the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution gave him the right to keep the restaurant segregated. The Supreme Court called this argument “patently frivolous.” Why do you think the Supreme Court made this claim? How do courts (and everyday people) arbitrate which beliefs and practices are essentially religious and which are not? How do you see those conversations continuing today, both in and outside the courts?
National Council of Churches at the March on Washington (Marion S. Trikosko, 1963), Library of Congress.
Further Reading
Dr. Lerone A. Martin, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism (2023)
Watched this session of the curriculum and have some thoughts? We’d love to hear from you.