Black Rights Matter Because Christian Theology Matters

Abstract The respected Presbyterian minister Francis J. Grimké (1850–1937) argued that evangelical theology, particularly its focus on conversion and the imago dei, could address the problem of racism in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. A recent study dismisses his theological beliefs as “platitudes” that masked his commitment to “a conservative culture of racial respectability.” Depreciating his theological protests, however, demonstrates an inadequate understanding of the critical role religion played in Black efforts to combat racism. An examination of Grimké’s anti-racist theology and his complex relationship with Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois offers a broader perspective into the ideological diversity in the Black freedom struggle.