The Missing Link of the American Civil Rights Movement: The Pre-Civil Rights Contribution of Bishop C.H. Mason (en Inglés)
Reseña del libro "The Missing Link of the American Civil Rights Movement: The Pre-Civil Rights Contribution of Bishop C.H. Mason (en Inglés)"
Bishop Charles Harrison Mason, in 1895, co-founded the Church of God in Christ organization. Mason utilized a socially transformational leadership style by ordaining whites and blacks from 1917-1940 during this Pre-Civil Rights period in America, 40 years before the modern Civil Rights Movement. Mason had essentially accomplished in America what Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had done in India, by developing a non-violent and pacifistic philosophy (Damm, 2011; Hill, 2013; Mehta, 2010). Bishop C.H. Mason was the first African American religious leader to have an FBI investigation. This investigation was to directly suppress this historical body of scholarly knowledge through governmental harassment suppressing these earlier historical themes from 1917-1930s. Because of Mason's threats, imprisonment, and persecution he chose to implement an accommodationalist approach to Civil Rights and non-violent protest activism. Therefore, many historians and sociologists believe that historically the Church of God in Christ was not involved in Civil Rights in America. This research project will argue that there existed similar themes prior to this covert and suppressive FBI investigation like; presidential interaction, passive resistance, white, and black interracial collaboration, and challenging American jurisprudence that were similar themes within the later Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s (Chism, 2013, Hill, 2013; Schlabach, & Hughes, 1987; U.S. War Department & FBI Files, 1918). It is not known how Bishop Charles Harrison Mason institutionalized a framework for early Civil Rights success 40 years before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s (Chism, 2013, Hill, 2013). Daniels (2003) stated, "While black Pentecostals are not renowned for being at the forefront of protest demonstrations, saints did indeed participate in political protest campaigns during the Civil Rights era" (p. 164). Mason's pacifist, non-violent philosophy prior to his FBI investigation impacted protest activism towards three legislative laws in United States history including Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, the Selective Service Act of 1917, and the Sedition Act of 1918 (Chism, 2013, Hill, 2013). Williams stated in his study surrounding the purpose of the Black Church, that, "Since its beginnings, the Black Church participated in one form or another in social, judicial, economic or religious life of the Black community" (Williams, 2011, p. 4).In 1917, Bishop Charles Mason wrote the first integration by-law within his African American religious organization called "Equal in Power and Authority" stating that white and blacks had the right to assemble in public. When Congress implemented the first draft law called the Selective Service Act of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson invited Mason to Washington, D.C. to meet with the War Department creating the first conscientious objection as a pacifist relating to religious exemption in America (Hill, 2013; Muñoz, 2008; Schlabach & Hughes, 1987).
