ABOUT THIS BOOK

Uplifting the People is a history of the Alabama Missionary Baptist State Convention—its origins, churches, associations, conventions, and leaders. Fallin demonstrates that a distinctive Afro-Baptist faith emerged as slaves in Alabama combined the African religious emphasis on spirit possession, soul-travel, and rebirth with the evangelical faith of Baptists. The denomination emphasizes a conversion experience that brings salvation, spiritual freedom, love, joy, and patience, and also stresses liberation from slavery and oppression and highlights the exodus experience. In examining the social and theological development of the Afro-Baptist faith over the course of three centuries, Uplifting the People demonstrates how black Baptists in Alabama used faith to cope with hostility and repression.

Fallin reveals that black Baptist churches were far more than places of worship. They functioned as self-help institutions within black communities and served as gathering places for social clubs, benevolent organizations, and political meetings. Church leaders did more than conduct services; they protested segregation and disfranchisement, founded and operated schools, and provided community leaders for the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.

Through black churches, members built banking systems, insurance companies, and welfare structures. Since the gains of the civil rights era, black Baptists have worked to maintain the accomplishments of that struggle, church leaders continue to speak for social justice and the rights of the poor, and churches now house day care and Head Start programs. Uplifting the People also explores the role of women, the relations between black and white Baptists, and class formation within the black church.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Wilson Fallin Jr. is Professor of History at the University of Montevallo and is the author of The African American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1815–1963: A Shelter in the Storm. He is also president of Birmingham-Easonian Baptist Bible College and has also served as Convention Historian for the National Baptist Convention USA.

REVIEWS

"This volume is the African American sequel to Wayne Flynt's majestic history of Caucasian Baptists in Alabama (Alabama Baptists, CH, May'99, 36-5036). Fallin (history, Univ. of Montevallo) gives a perceptive insider's view in showing how 'black Baptists in Alabama responded to the wider world in which they found themselves.' The book discusses 'the response of black Baptists to slavery, disfranchisement, legal segregation, lynching, lack of state-sponsored education, and many other issues.' Fallin makes creative contributions to the important role of women, education (especially at Selma University), music, and self-help units within the Baptist institutional church. He also demonstrates how black Baptists, more so than whites, 'developed a broader social ethic grounded in their gospel of liberation.' This study stands among the most excellent books available setting forth state denominational history from the 18th to the 21st century. Fallin urges a continuation of the longstanding pattern of black Alabama Baptists 'to be a voice for the poor and oppressed--and to serve the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of their people.' The volume includes extremely helpful plates, an index, notes, a bibliography, and a bibliographical essay. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers."
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“Outstanding. . . . provides a chronological overview of Black Baptist history in Alabama. Uplifting the People is well written, well documented, and provides valuable contributions to African American history and scholarship."

—Bill J. Leonard, author of Baptists in America

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“This work makes a significant contribution to the study of American church history. It is clearly written and does a good job of surfacing figures, communities, and their roles in the history of Black Baptists in Alabama.”

—Stephen G. Ray Jr., author of Do No Harm: Social Sin and Christian Responsibility

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
List of Illustrations	000
Preface	000
Part 1	Slavery and Reconstruction, 17011874
	1. Slaves, Afro-Baptist Faith, and Black Preachers	000
	2. God's Gift of Freedom	000
Part 2	Post-Reconstruction, 18741900
	3. Church Life, Expansion, and Denominational Concerns	000
	4. Education, Black Nationalism, and Sociopolitical Concerns	000
	5. Theology and Leadership	000
Part 3	The Progressive Era, 19001917
	6. Protest, Growth, and Revivalism	000
	7. Urbanization and Economic Self-Help	000
Part 4	Before and after World War II, 19171954
	8. Between the Wars	000
	9. Rising Militancy	000
Part 5	The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond, 19542000
	10. Protest and Reorganization	000
	11. Continuity, Preservation, and Challenge	000
Conclusion: Serving the Needs of the People 	000
Notes	000
Bibliographical Essay	000
Bibliography	000
Index	000