Table of Contents

Introduction We Have Been Believers: Patterns of African-American Women’s Religiosity, Judith Weisenfeld; Part 1 African-American Women’s Religious Arts; Chapter 1 The Harriet Powers Pictorial Quilts, Marie Jeanne Adams; Chapter 2 Willie Mae Ford Smith of St. Louis: A Shaping Influence upon Black Gospel Singing Style, William Thomas Dargan, Kathy White Bullock; Chapter 3 Lucie E. Campbell Williams a Cultural Biography, Reverend Charles Walker; Part 2 African-American Women and Church Institutions; Chapter 4 Praying in the Shadows: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, a Look at Nineteenth-Century Black Catholic Spirituality, Thaddeus J. Posey, O.F.M. Cap; Chapter 5 ::, Stephen Ward Angell; Chapter 6 ::, Richard Newman; Chapter 7 Mary McLeod Bethune and the Methodist Episcopal Church North: In But Out, Clarence G. Newsome; Chapter 8 Religion, Politics, and Gender: The Leadership of Nannie Helen Burroughs, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham; Chapter 9 A Black Woman in a White Man’s Church: Amy E. Robbins and the Reorganization, Roger D. Launius; Chapter 10 Minister and Feminist Reformer: The Life of Florence Spearing Randolph, Bettye Collier-Thomas; Part 3 African-American Women and Christian Missions; Chapter 11 Elizabeth Mars Johnson Thomson (1807–1864): A Research Note, Randall K. Burkett; Chapter 12 “Who is Sufficient for These Things?” Sara G. Stanley and the American Missionary Association, 1864–1868, Judith Weisenfeld; Chapter 13 Spelman’s Emma B. Delaney and the African Mission, Sandy D. Martin; Part 4 African-American Women, Religion, and Activism; Chapter 14 In Search of Harriet Tubman’s Spiritual Autobiography, Jean M. Humez; Chapter 15 Representing Truth: Sojourner Truth’s Knowing And Becoming Known, Nell Irvin Painter; Chapter 16 Septima P. Clark and the Struggle for Human Rights, Grace Jordan Mcfadden;

About the Author

Judith Weisenfeld is Assistant Professor of Religion at Barnard College. Richard Newman is with the DuBois Institute, Harvard University.

Reviews

"This collection of essays offers a profound introduction to the complex role of religion in the lives of African American women. Newman and Weisenfeld have edited the definitive collection of African-American women's religious biography yet published." -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A powerful collection of biographies which will help readers locate and appreciate the struggles of these foresisters." -- Waterwheel