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Quakers and African Americans

As far back as 1737, Benjamin Lay, one of many Friends who worked to free the Society of Friends of slaveholding, said that “Negroes were incapable of assimilation…” Even Anthony Benezet, A Friend who devoted his life to educating free African Americans, like most other 18th Century Quakers, “believed time and Providence would fit them for freedom, preferably to be enjoyed in some other place than the South.” West of the Alleghenies was his idea of “a suitable settlement.” Thomas E. Drake, Quakers and Slavery, p. 121.

“…we have been led to believe that white abolitionists generally and Quakers specifically extended all aid to runaway slaves. This involvement however, has been grossly exaggerated. Only a minority of this religious community …participated in the struggle to transport slaves to freedom.

“The overemphasis on the Quakers’ role has led to ignorance about the participation of other religious groups, however. The Wesleyan Methodists, the Jews, the Dunkers, the Unitarians, the Covenanters, and the Roman Catholics probably have as legitimate a claim to consistent Railroad activity as the Quakers.” Charles Blockson, The Underground Railroad, p. 3.

[This overemphasis also] “led to the unfortunate neglect of the importance of the free Negroes in the historical drama [of the Underground Railroad]. Larry Gara, “Friends and the Underground Railroad,” Quaker History, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Spring 1962) p. 9.

“We have just learned that the [Media Friends] School has admitted as a pupil a child who is Negro. We regret this change in policy was made without sufficient consultation with the parents of children already enrolled…No one of us has the slightest prejudice against the Negro race, but on the other hand we believe it unwise and unnecessary to have our children thrown in close daily association with Negro children. Once the door is opened it is inevitable that others will follow.” Letter of February 20, 1937, Signed by 39 Media Friends School parents.

“I have frequently heard my mother say that very many of our people inclined to Friends’ mode of worship; she lamented the unchristian conduct that kept them out. Some have gone out from ‘Friends,’ not because they prefer their own meetings where they regularly hear ‘singing and preaching,’ but because they could not bear the cross of sitting on the ‘black bench.’ Ah, there are many poor stray starving sheep, wandering in this world’s wilderness, who would gladly come to your green pastures, and repose them by your Stillwater; did not prejudice bar the entrance! I am persuaded the Lord has a controversy with Friends on this account. Let them see to it.” Quoted in: Margaret Hope Bacon, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting: View from the Back Bench, p. 21.

Reporting in 1839 to British Friends about racism in the U.S., Sarah Grimké wrote of a conversation with a Quaker woman from Massachusetts who “admitted that in her household the black hired hand was given separate dishes. The family ‘would no more have thought of using them, than if a cat or dog had eaten with them—such she said are the prejudices I was educated in, I have found it hard to overcome them.’” Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne, editors. The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America, p. 167.

“In Richmond, Indiana in the 1920s, 6.6 percent of the Ku Klux Klan were Quakers.” Dwight W. Hosmer, “Daisy Douglas Barr: From Quaker to Klan ‘Kluckeress,’” Indiana Magazine of History, June 1991.

Websites

Benjamin Lundy: Pioneer Quaker Abolitionist - Lundy established several anti-slavery newspapers and worked for many others. He traveled widely seeking to limit the expansion of slavery, and in seeking to establish a colony to which freed slaves might be located, outside of the United States.

Sarah Mapps Douglass, Whether as abolitionist leader, bakery owner, teacher, writer, or faithful Meeting House attender, Sarah Mapps Douglass wanted only to do God's will. Oh the pain she felt encountering racial prejudice among her beloved fellow Friends.

John Woolman, Quintessential Quaker (abolitionist forerunner). Ahead of his times, ahead of both England and America, Woolman's pen transformed attitudes not only among Friends, but in denominational churches on both sides of the Atlantic.

Community Change Inc Boston non-profit working since 1968 as a center for action and collaboration among individuals and multiracial groups working for racial justice and equity. Excellent library, including videos. Other programs.

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting -- list of books about racism, as well as curriculum materials.

PYM link (broken link) -- list of biographies of black Quakers, including some for children.

Friends General Conference (NC) link – FGC bookstore on line. FGC carries some of these books.

Fit For Freedom - African American Quaker Profiles (from FGC): Cyrus Bustill, Vera Green, Paul Cuffe, Bayard Rustin

That of God in every man The transcendent power of Conscience. Quakerism and the Inner Light. From Stephen Grellet to Elizabeth Gurney Fry, they shone their light.

Vanessa Julye – information on Vanessa’s ministry, schedule, and other resources.

More on Vanessa Julye – African-American Friend. Faithful to God's Leading. A Quaker's living witness.

Pendle Hill – Pendle Hill bookstore carries some of these books.

Fellowship of Friends of African Descent OR fellowshipoffriendsofafricandescent.org - 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia PA 19102 website ffadquaker.org

Discovering fellowship among African American Friends article by Elmyra (Amhara) Powell

Article: Negro Membership in the Society of Friends excellent resource (author Henry Cadbury)

Back Bencher Friends - Race Relations ( a Whiter Quaker Fellowship?) Site explores Quakerism: a view from the back benches

Quakers and slavery - thanks to Woodward Family genealogy

Access Genealogy - African American Genealogy records are much more difficult to find due to the scant nature of record keeping for blacks prior to the Civil War.

Afrigeneas - AfriGeneas is a site devoted to African American genealogy, to researching African Ancestry in the Americas in particular and to genealogical research and resources in general.

African-American-Genealogy - Professor Gates offers tips on African-American research

African American Genealogy - Genealogy resources for African American genealogy research and African American history. Many African American resources are included here.

African American contributions to the gospel milieu (pioneer days and American religion) - the poor are rich in faith (an earthy democratic religion takes root in American soil )

black-refer (African American Genealogy - Blackrefer.com has links to african american genealogy websites, black history, black genealogy websites are listed on BlackRefer.com.

Black Genealogical or Historical Societies - in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

Christine's African American Genealogy. helps family genealogists trace African American roots.

Emmett Till, the Death of Innocence [history of America's Negro Holocaust]. His crime was puberty (whistled at a white woman). He was lynched by white men for (why?) merely being black.

Audios/Videos (back to top) Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin: From PBS Point of View program. For more information see rustin.org or PBS' POV Purchasing information for educators and organizations is at California Newsreel or call toll-free 1-877-811-7495.

Bayard Rustin - the First Freedom Ride. Another overview is the following critical look at the impact of Bayard Rustin on the Black Protest Movement. There has been a Negro Revolt in every decade of this century," Lerone Bennett wrote in 1963. "Each revolt failed, only to emerge in the next decade on a higher level of development."1 If there is a single person who served as the nexus between these decennial revolts, it was Bayard Rustin.

James Farmer -Raised in an environment that valued education and religious faith, James Farmer was an outstanding student. After skipping several grades in elementary school, he entered Wiley College in Marshall, Texas at the age of 14 (where his father had taught, as one of the few African American Ph.D.s in the South). Farmer opposed war in general, and more specifically objected to serving in the segregated armed forces. When the U.S. entered World War II later that year, he applied for conscientious objector status but found he was deferred from the draft because he had a divinity degree.

Bill Sutherland: Non-violent warrior for peace - Bill Sutherland's pacifism during World War II meant a four-year sentence in Lewisburg prison as a conscientious objector. Through his belief in nonviolence he made lifelong friends who shared his views, Dave Dellinger and Don Benedict among them. He was released in 1945. It was not long before his deep commitment led him to Africa, then in the birth throes of the independence movement. See Pan-African Leaders

Martin Luther King, Jr. - Nonviolent Action as the Sword that Heals. Pacifism after the Gandhi model. It was through the influence of the well-known pacifist A J Muste as well as Mordecai Johnson that King drew closer to the Gandhian concept of non-violent direct action, which in turn drew heavily from Leo Tolstoy. (Link is from Tolstoy's The Law of Love and the Law of Violence.) See "Limits of Turning the Other Cheek"

Color of Fear. Stir Fry Seminars, 1994.

Free Indeed, Mennonite Cultural Comm. discussion starter for issues of white privilege

Axiology; Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Two audio tapes by Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary, African American psychologist. For information about her and ordering tapes, see Power of Oneness

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. New PBS Series. 4 parts. See PBS to order. ($80 for all four.) Highly recommended for history of racism in U.S.

The Veterans of Hope Project (Vincent Harding), videos documenting the lives of “veterans” of social change movements, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, CO 80210; 303-763-3194; vohproject@iliff.edu

Pendle Hill 2002-2003 lecture series on racial justice. Can order video and audio tapes: set or individually. Series speakers, topics, and some transcripts on website (Pendle Hill). Series will include Feb. 23, 2003, lecture by Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye.

Workshops
Beyond Diversity 101: Niyonu Spann, facilitator. “Intensive workshop” on to go beyond guilt and blame. TRV Consulting, 609-747-9469l TRVconsulting@aol.com

Healing Racism: understanding the cycle of racial conditioning. 12-wk. Program given several times year by Pacem in Terris, Wilmington, DE. Sally Millbury Steen 302-656-2721.

Study Circles. Foundation --excellent formats for community workshops to discuss racism and other matters. Most materials free and many are on website: Study Circles PO Box 203, Pomfret, CT 06258. 860-928-2616.

Teaching Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Institute study materials for teachers, Teaching Tolerance Information about other Institute programs at Southern Poverty Law Center

Training for Change: facilitations and workshops on various social change issues. 215-729-7458.

Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye, Winter 2003

Just a reminder that our history is not exactly what many think or would us/others believe. Carter

New England Yearly Meeting Ministry and Counsel Working Party on Racism

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends has "M&C Working Party on Racism"

Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship

This page contains the following material from the "Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship" research project, with the permission of Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye:

Resources: The relationship of Quakers and African Americans

Quaker history, African American history, and racism

Quaker History and Closely Related History

Bacon, Margaret Hope. I Speak for My Slave Sister: The Life of Abby Kelly Foster.

————. The Quiet Rebels: The Story of Quakers in America, Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference.

————. Valiant Friend (Lucretia Mott), Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference.

————. Abby Hopper Gibbons: Prison Reformer and Social Activist, Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference.

————. Sarah Mapps Douglas, Faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting: View from the Back Bench. Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference

Barbour, Densmore, et al. Quaker Crosscurrents: Three Hundred Years of Friends in the New York Yearly Meetings.

Cadbury, Henry. “Negro Membership in the Society of Friends,” Journal of Negro History, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 1936. Also available on Quaker sites on the web.

Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America.

Gara, Larry. The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad.

Hickey, Damon D. Sojourners No More: The Quakers in the New South, 1865-1920.

Hilty, Hiram. By Land and By Sea: Quakers Confront Slavery and Its Aftermath in North Carolina; Toward Freedom.

Hitchock, Jeffrey. Lifting the White Veil: An Exploration of White American Culture in A Multiracial Context.

Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists From 1830 Through the Civil War (Not a Quaker history but many references to Quakers.)

Nash, Gary. Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720-1840.

Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. Allies for Freedom.

Schiel, Skip. How We Have Responded to Racism, in and Among Us: A Chronicle of New England Yearly Meeting Decisions and Actions: 1965-1998.

Selleck, Linda. Gentle Invaders. Quaker Women Educators and Racial Issues During the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Soderlund, Jean. Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Spirit.

Sterling, D. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century.

Taylor, Richard. Friends and the Racial Crisis. Pendle Hill Pamphlet. (Out of print but call Pendle Hill bookstore for possible copy.)

Yellin, Jean F and John Van Horne, ed. The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America.

Quaker African Americans

Anderson, Jervis. Bayard Rustin: Troubles I’ve Seen, A Biography. HarperCollins, 1997.

Atkin, Mary Gage. Paul Cuffe and the African Promised Land. Thomas Nelson, 1977.

Fletcher, James, ed. A Quaker Speaks from the Black Experience: The Life and Selected Writings of Barrington Dunbar, NYYM, 1979.

Ives, Kenneth. Black Quakers: Brief Biographies (Out of print.)

Kerman, Cynthia. The Lives of Jean Toomer.

Mississippi, Anthony (Black Quaker). An American Journal.

Saunders, Deborah. Equality. Pendle Hill Pamphlet. (Order through bookstore, Pendlehill.org )

Spann-Wilson, Dwight. Quaker and Black: Answering the Call of My Twin Roots.

Wiggins, Rosalind, ed. Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters, 1808-1817: A Black Quaker’s “Voice From Within the Veil.”

Books (Racism; African American History; Writings by African Americans)

Baldwin, James. (Essay): On Being White and Other Lies. The Fire Next Time. Notes of A Native Son; The Price of the Ticket: Collected Non-Fiction.

Beals, M. P. White is A State of Mind. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Ball, Edward. Slaves in the Family.

Berry, Wendell, The Hidden Wound, (Out of print but available used. Be sure to get the edition by North Point Press.).

Bolden, Tonya, Strong Men Keep Coming: The Book of African American Men, John Wiley and Sons, 1999.

Boyd, H., Ed., Autobiography of A People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It. 2000.

Brandt, J. Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America.

Case, E. The Rage of African American Privileged Class.

Crouch, S. Notes of a Hanging Judge, New York: Oxford University Press.

Curry, Connie. Aaron Henry: the Fire Ever Burning, Univ. Press of Mississippi.

Daloz, Laurent et al. Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World.

Davies, S.E. and S.P.T. Hennessee, Ending Racism in the Church.

Dent, David J. In Search of Black America, Simon & Schuster

Dubois, WEB. "The Souls of Black Folk. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study 1899-1967." in Black on White. Ed. David R. Roediger, 1999

Ellison, Ralph, The Invisible Man.

Etine, Jon. Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Ask, Perseus Book Group.

Foner, Eric. Story of American Freedom and many other books on racism, the black experience.

Freedomways Reader, edited by Esther Cooper Jackson and Constance Pohl, Westview Press.

Fulwood, S. Waking From the Dream: My Life in the Black Middle Class.

Gates, H.L. and Cornel West, The Future of the Race.

Graham, L.O. Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class.

Halberstam, David. The Children.

Hale, Grace Elizabeth. Making Whiteness: the Culture of Segregation in the South.

Hacker, Andrew. Two Nations; New York: Scribners.

Harding, Vincent: The Other American Revolution, There Is A River, and others.

Johnson, C. and P. Smith. Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co.

Hooks, bell. Killing Rage: Ending Racism.

Horton, James. Free People of Color. Inside the African-American Community.

Horton, James and Lois Horton, Hard Road to Freedom: The State of African America (2001)

Katz, William Loren. Black Pioneers: An Untold Story.

Kivel, Paul. Uprooting Racism.

Lelyveld, ed. and NY Times Correspondents: How Race Is Lived in America: Pulling Together, Pulling Apart.

Lerner, G. editor. Black Women in White America. New York: Vintage Books.

Lewis, John. Walking in the Wind.

McDonald, Janet. Project Girl.

Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark and others.

Myers, Jim Afraid of the Dark

Osofsky, Gilbert. Puttin’ on Ole Massa: Slave Narratives. The Burden of Race. Harlem: The Making of A Ghetto: Negro New York 1890-1920.

Painter, Nell. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction.

Payne, Charles. I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Mississippi Freedom Movement and the Organizing Tradition.

Pease, Jane, and William Pease: They Would Be Free: Blacks in New England.

Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Also Paul Robeson; Artist and Citizen.

Rose, Willie Lee. Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment.

Rutstein, Nathan. Healing Racism in America.

Sabry, E.W. Wishes in Black and White.

Scales-Trent, J. Notes of A White Black Woman. University Park, PA: Penn State University

Shipler, David. A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America.

Sterling, Dorothy. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the 19th Century.

Straight, Susan. Blacker Than A Thousand Midnights.

Tatum, D. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? New York: Basic Books.

Thandeka, Learning to be White, Money, Race, and God in America, Continuum, 2001.

Thornbrough, Emma L. Black Reconstructionists.

West, Cornel, Race Matters, Beacon 1993.

Williams, Lena, and Charlayn Hunter-Gault, It’s The Little Things: Everyday Interactions that Anger, Annoy, and Divide the Races, Harvest Books, 2002.

Winant, Howard. The World is A Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II. New York: Basic Books 2001.

Wood, Forrest G., The Arrogance of Faith; The Era of Reconstruction.

Wright, Marguerite. I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World.

Yee, Shirley, Black Women Abolitionists: A Study in Activism.

Sample Readings

Resources: The relationship of Quakers and African Americans, Quaker history, African American history, and racism

Quaker History and Closely Related HistoryQuaker African AmericansBooks (Racism; African American History; Writings by African Americans)WebsitesAudios/VideosWorkshopsSample readings from the “Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship” research project.

A sampling of materials representing some of the key findings of the “Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship” research project is given below. The research

harrisburgfriends.org/pipermail/quakers_harrisburgfriends.org/2005q1/000374.html

Blacks, having so closely involved with Friends during abolitionism, drifted away
The early days of Quakerism, so filled with the fire and passion of the high idealism of their "good news" (evangelical fervor), somehow cooled. During the ninetenth century, African Americans, for so long so closely involved with Quaker friends and allies during the long struggle of abolition, needed a "living religion" according to their own testimony. Why might this have occurred?

The Decline of Quakerism, and other elitist intellectual faiths
Abraham Maslow speculates on the lukewarm religion they had become: "A rather bleak, boring, unexciting, unemotional, cool philosophy of life which fails to do what the traditional religions have tried to do when they were at their best, to inspire, to awe, to comfort, to fulfill, to guide in the value of choices, and to discriminate between higher and lower, better and worse, not to mention to produce [Dionysiac and Pentecostal experiences, wildness, rejoicing, impulsiveness."