AFRO-AMERICAN INTELLECTUALS AND CHRISTIANITY
Keywords:
Christianity, Islam, sham religion, slavery, freedom, Frederick Douglass, William Du Bois, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr.Abstract
One of the key questions that African American intellectuals had and still have is the question of attitude that Afro-American community should have towards Christianity. The question is whether it is the religion of enslavers, aimed at justifying the system and give slaves some hope of happiness after death, or is it a faith that represents the greatest accusation against the enslavers themselves, who by participation in the system of slavery accuse themselves and who are, by this perverted version of Christianity, committing blasphemy against Christ. This article examines that question by contrasting the ideas of several most important African American thinkers and activists, whose positions defined the lines of future debate. This article compares the views of Frederick Douglass, WEB Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X on this issue.
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