We present excerpts from the first issue of the Newsletter, published from 1976 until 1997, and the inspiration for this journal.
N E W S L E T T E R
OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY GROUP
OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION
Vol. 1, No. 1 Fall 1976
Editor: Randall K Burkett, Associate Director,
Office of Special Studies, College of the Holy Cross
ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF THE GROUP:
The AAR Group for the Study of Afro-American Religious History has its origins in a March 1973 meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Funded by a grant from the Society for Religion in Higher Education, some 15 scholars, librarians, and graduate students from around the country met for two days to discuss the advancement of scholarly research in black religious history. Out of that meeting came the Committee Concerned for Resources in the Religious Experience of Black People (a short-lived attempt to generate new bibliographic resources), the Northeastern Seminar on Black Religion (a continuing study group of scholars in the Northeast who meet three or four times a year to present papers and discuss research) and, in December 1974, the Afro-American Religious History Group of the AAR.
The Group's first session was at the October 1975 AAR meeting in Chicago. The following papers were presented during the two sessions held there:
First Session
David Wills, Amherst College, Presiding
Theme: Slave Religion, The Black Church, and Reconstruction
"Religion, Rebellion, and Docility Among American Slaves." Albert J. Raboteau, University of California at Berkeley
"J.W. C Pennington: From Slavery to Reconstruction." Herman E. Thomas, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Second Session
Albert J. Raboteau, University of California at Berkeley, Presiding
Theme: Black Theology and the Black Church
"The Theology of Black Abolitionism." James M. Washington, Yale University
"Theophilus Gould Steward: Black Theologian of the 1880's." David W. Wills, Amherst College
"George Alexander McGuire, the African Orthodox Church, and the U.N.I.A." Randall K. Burkett, College of the Holy Cross
At this same meeting, a Steering Committee of four was constituted including Albert J. Raboteau (U.C., Berkeley) and David W. Wills (Amherst), Chairpersons, along with James M. Washington (Union Theological Seminary) and Randall K. Burkett (Holy Cross College). The following membership list of over thirty persons was also compiled.
Leonard E. Barrett, Temple Univ., Dept. of Religion, Phila., Pa.
Irwin W. Batdorf, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio
Karen Brown, Drew Theological Seminary, Madison,. New Jersey
Randall K. Burkett, Office of Special Studies, Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass.
G. Clarke Chapman, Jr., Moravian College, Dept. of Religion, Bethlehem, Pa.
Charles L. Coleman, Office of Religious Affairs, Penn. State University
Leslie C. Desmangles, Dept. of Religion, Ohio Wesleyan Univ., Delaware, Ohio
Terry H. Foreman, Murray State U., Murray, Ky.
William Gravely, Dept. of Religion, Univ. of Denver, Denver, Col.
Paul R. Griffin, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio
Diana Hodge, Southern Baptist Theo. Seminary
David H. Koss, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill.
Diane J. Meriweather, Graduate Theo. Union, Berkeley, Calif.
Laura Meriweather, Univ. of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.
Joseph Mitchell, Dept. of Phil. and Rel.,Troy State University, Troy, Al.
Larry Murphy, Garrett Evangelical Seminary
Andrew E. Murray, Lincoln Univ., Pa.
James D. Nelson, United Theological Seminary. Dayton, 0hio
Albert J Raboteau, Univ. Calif., Berkeley, Calif.
Stephen B. Reid, Bethany Seminary, Oakbrook, Ill.
Wayne Reinhardt, Ohio State Univ., Lima Campus
James P. Robinson, Ecumenical Center, Springfield, Mo.
Lester Scherer, Dept of History and Phiiosophy, Eastern Mich Univ., Ypsilanti, Mi.
Mary L. Schneider, Dept. of Rel. Studies, Michigan State Univ., E. Lansing, Mi.
Mario W. Shaw, OSB, St. Mary's Cathedral, Peoria, III
Herman E. Thomas, Dept. of Rel. Studies, UNCC, Charlotte, N.C.
James M. Washington, Union Theological Seminary, New York
John W. Waters, Univ, of Detroit, Detroit, Mich.
Walter Weare, Dept. of History, Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis.
Preston N. Williams, Harvard Divinity School ,Cambridge, Mass.
David W Wills, Dept. of Phil. and Rel., Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.
The Steering Committee has set the following program for the October 1976 AAR meeting in St. Louis:
First Session
Albert J. Raboteau, University of California, Berkeley, Presiding
"Ethiopianism in Black Religious Thought: The Force of a Myth in the Search for Identity" Leonard E. Barrett, Temple University
"Adorkaville: A Black Nationalist Religious Community" Richard Newman, G.K. Hall & Co., Publishers
"J. W. E. Bowen: Historical Theologian" James M. Washington, Union Theological Seminary
Respondent, Randall K. Burkett, College of the Holy Cross
Second Session
Papers for this session will NOT be read aloud or extensively digested. Participants
must have read them in advance.
David W. Wills, Amherst College, Presiding
Theme: Methodology in the Study and Teaching of Black Religion
"Images of the Self in Yoruban Traditional Religion: A Structural Analysis" John Pemberton 3rd, Amherst College
"The Center and the Edges: A Structural Analysis of Haitian Religious Imagery" Karen McCarthy Brown, Drew University
"Historians and Afro-American Religion" Thomas R. Frazier, Baruch College, CUNY
"Methodology in Afro-American Religious Studies" Calvin Bruce, Yale University
"Problems and Resources in Teaching 'Religion and Culture in Black America'" Albert J. Raboteau, University of California, Berkeley
THE NEWSLETTER:
The Steering Committee has also decided to publish at least twice annually a Newsletter for the Group, which not only will serve as the conduit for information about the annual meetings (including distribution of copies of pre-printed papers) but also for items of interest to students of Afro-American religious history. We hope that you will use the Newsletter to share your bibliographic finds, to note current research or teaching projects, to request assistance from others in locating materials for research or teaching, and the like. We are eager to make the Newsletter serve your interests and needs, and are most open to suggestions concerning its format or direction.
Acknowledgement and much thanks to Professor Erik S. Lunde, editor of the Newsletter of the Group for the Study of Nationalism, from whom both the idea and the format for the present Newsletter were adapted.
RESEARCH NOTES:
Among the extraordinarily valuable items in the Edward Starr Afro-American Collection, recently acquired by Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University, is a nearly complete run for the years 1830-1846 of the Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The thirteen separate volumes, varying from eleven to sixteen pages each, are bound in a single volume. The Annual Conference Report for the year 1843 bears on the last page the inscription "Jehiel C. Bemans Property, Boston, Mass., " and it is possible that the entire collection once belonged to him. (Beman was an AME Zion clergyman who served in Connectictut from 1830 to 1838 and in Boston thereafter. He was also an active abolitionist.)
The following are issues of the yearly conferences included in the Starr Collection:
Minutes Taken at the Yearly Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in America. For the Year 1830. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York: J.C. Totten, 1830), 11pp.
Minutes Taken at the Yearly Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in America. For the year 1831 Held at New York. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York: John C. Totten, n.d.), 12pp. [Includes Minutes of Philadelphia Annual Conference, 1831.]
Minutes Taken at the Yearly Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America. For the year 1832. Held at New York, May 19, 1832. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York: J. C. Totten, n.d.), 12pp. [Includes Minutes of Philadelphia Annual Conference.]
Minutes of the Yearly Conferences, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in America. Held in the City of New York, May 17, 1834. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York: Marsh & Harrison, 1834), 12pp. [Includes Minutes of the Philadelphia and Little York Conferences.)
Minutes of the Yearly Conferences, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in America. Held in the City of New-York, May 17, 1835. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent]. (New York: Marsh & Harrison, 1835), l2pp. [Includes Minutes of the Philadelphia Annual Conference].
Minutes of the. Two Yearly Conferences, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in North America. Held in the City of New York, May 21st. And in Philadelphia June 4th, 1836. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York, np., 1836), l2pp.
Minutes of the Yearly Conferences, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in America. Held in the City of New York, May 19, 1838, And in Wesley Church, Philadelphia, June 2, 1838. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York: n.p., 1838) , l2pp.
Minutes of the Yearly Conferences, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in America. Held in the City of New-York, May 18th, 1839, And in Philadelphia, June 8th, the same year. [Christopher Rush, Superindendent.] (New York, n.p., 1839), l2pp.
Minutes of the General and Annual Conferences of the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America, Held in the City of New York, May 23rd, 1840, and in the City of Philadelphia the same year. [Christopher Rush, Senior Superintendent.] (New York: J M. Marsh, 1840), l2pp.
Minutes of the Yearly Conferences, of the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America, Held in the City of New York, May 22nd, 1841, and in the City of Philadelphia the same year. [Christopher Rush, Senior Superintendent.] (New York: J.M. Marsh, 1841), 12pp.
Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America, Held in the City of New York, May 28th, 1842, and in the City of Puladelphia, June, 1842. [Christopher Rush, Senior Superintendent.] (New York: J M. Marsh, 1842), l6pp.
The Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America, including the New York & Philadelphia Conferences. 1843. [Christopher Rush, Senior Superintendent.] (New York: Marks & Co., 1843), 11pp.
The Minutes of the Several Annual Conferences of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.1846. [Christopher Rush, Superintendent.] (New York: J. P Thompson & J. A. King, for the Conferences), 16pp.
Pasted into the end paper of the bound volume is a newspaper clipping from the Colored American, October 9, 1841, entitled "The African Methodist E. Church in America." It discusses variations in the denomination's name. The Starr Collection also includes a copy of Christopher Rush's A Short Account of the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal [Zion] Church in America, (New York, By the Author, 1843), and many other items of interest. The Starr Collection is briefly described in the May 1976 issue of The Crisis, p.166.