Identifier
etd-04292010-132837
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
In 1844 American Methodists split over the issue of slavery, and following the Civil War the regional churches took two paths toward accommodating African Americans. Northern whites put their faith in the ideology of racial uplift and believed freed persons could only rise through society through organic relations with their white brethren. Southern whites, however, contended that blacks should maintain their own racially segregated churches. Thus, by the 1870s, southern Methodism became an all white institution. Between 1916 and 1939 northern and southern Methodists debated a path to reunite American Methodism, and the role of African Americans in the church and the distribution of ecclesiastical authority became two primary obstacles. When the churches agreed on a final plan in 1939, it appeared that southern whites’ segregationist attitudes had prevailed over the northern Methodists’ racial egalitarianism. Scholarly interpretations have confirmed this assumption, arguing that the final plan caste African Americans into a racially segregated “Central Jurisdiction” and only gave blacks representation in the quadrennial General Conference. However, a careful examination of the reunification debates reveals how white and black Methodist’s conceptions of race changed over the inter-war years. Where other interpretations have caste reunification as a regressive measure in race relations, this essay argues that at the time, many Methodists believed it was one step toward a more racially and ecclesiastically harmonious Methodism.
Date
2010
Document Availability at the Time of Submission
Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.
Recommended Citation
Renfro, Blake Barton, "The reunification of American Methodism, 1916-1939: a thesis" (2010). LSU Master's Theses. 400.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/400
Committee Chair
Foster, Gaines
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_theses.400