History

African American History

Introduction

African American Studies is often referred to as both a “reform movement and emerging discipline”. It is focused on the study of the people of the African diaspora. By documenting the history, current lives, and future prospects of people of African ancestry throughout the globe, African American Studies is a unique type of scholarship because it links theory with action. It presents the lives of black people from their own perspective and in their own voices. Initially, its aim was to correct the racially charged, stereotypical, and often racist imaginings of black America created by non black and to discern what blacks can and should do to improve their social condition within and outside of the United States. African American Studies is epistemological; it involves the study of the nature of knowledge (what we know about blacks), the presuppositions and foundations of knowledge (how we know what we know about blacks), and the validity of knowledge (whether the information on blacks is representative of their lives).

History and Background of African American

The tradition of giving tithes started during the colonial period, when free African Americans, mostly residing in the North, created churches to serve poor African Americans. In the words of C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya (1990) in their seminal book, The Black Church in the African American Experience, The tradition of mutual aid lay deep in the African heritage, which stressed a greater communalism and social solidarity than either European or American customs allowed. These incipient traditions of mutual aid and self-help in the slave quarters were formalized and legitimated with the Christianizing of the slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (p. 242; see also Joseph, 1995)

The growth of a separate system of black churches gave African Americans the chance to create the “first black-owned and operated institutions” . Since their inception, black churches have been the most significant institutions involved in African American philanthropy (Byrd, 1990; Frazier, 1963, 1997; Lincoln, 1974; Smith et al, 1999). They have also been the main beneficiary of black philanthropic giving (Abbe, 2002). African American pastors are typically the most influential and well-known members of their communities and these individuals instill an obligation to give to the church in their congregants (Sam, 2008).

Most African Americans learn at an early age that they have the responsibility to contribute to their churches. Through the use, of personal engagement and the creation of a bond of trust, African American pastors communicate the needs of their churches and constantly encourage their parishioners to support the labors of the church (Lincoln & Mamiya, 1990). This sense of obligation to give has provided the foundation for African American social and civic movements in the United States, including the civil rights movement . Black pastors were mindful of the impact of racism on economic mobility in the United States, and thus, they sought to build a firm financial base on which political and social change could happen (Anderson & Moss, ...