W.E.B. Du Bois and "The Negro Church"

Abstract

This article surveys W.E.B. Du Bois's political thought on the appropriate role of African American religion and religious institutions in the struggle for African American empowerment. More broadly, the discussion illuminates a vigorous debate in the early decades of the twentieth century among a wide variety of African American intellectuals and activists on this very question. The article concludes with a call for renewed research on the place of the church in political struggles, as this remains an area about which much is assumed but little is actually written.