Righteous Discontent:The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham gives us our first full account of the crucial role of black women in making the church a powerful institution for social and political change in the black community. Focusing on the National Baptist Convention, the largest religious movement among black Americans, Higginbotham shows us how women were largely responsible for making the church a force for self-help. She reveals, too, the challenges of black women to patriarchal theology. At once tough-minded and engaging, this book is central to an understanding of African-American social and cultural life and a critical chapter in the history of religion in America.