Date

5-22-2024

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Luci Vaden

Keywords

19th Century American History, 20th Century American History, African American History, Civil Rights Movement History, Black Studies, Race and Ethnicity

Disciplines

History

Abstract

Black churches played a significant role in the Long Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, Tennessee, from Reconstruction to the early 1970’s. A more detailed study of the history of the movement and the role that Black churches played needs to be done at the local level, to gain a better understanding of how the Nashville Civil Rights Movement developed logistically and ideologically. This dissertation assesses how the Black Church, as an institution of African American life in Nashville, shaped and directed civil rights activism in that city. Black churches provided the headquarters that established two of the most influential civil rights organizations in Nashville: the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC) and the Nashville Student Movement (NSM). These churches provided a home to many future notable national civil rights figures, including John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel, Marion Barry, Bernard Lafayette, among others. Nashville churches provided activists nonviolent training and place of refuge during civil rights protests in Nashville, and a religious theology to combat social injustice. Because of the strong Christian tradition in the Black community in Nashville, it emerged as one of the best organized and powerful movements in the national struggle for civil rights.

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