Long March Ahead - African American Churces and Public Policy in Post-Civil Rights America

The Public Influences of African American Churches, Vol. 2

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Edited by R. Drew Smith

Duke University Press

Due/Published March 2005, 232 pages, cloth

ISBN 0822333589

Analyzing the extensive data gathered by The Public Influences of African American Churches Project, which surveyed nearly two thousand churches across the country, Long March Ahead assesses the public policy activism of black churches since the Civil Rights movement. Social scientists and clergy consider the churches' work on a range of policy matters over the past four decades: affirmative action, welfare reform, health care, women's rights, education, and anti-apartheid activism. Some essays consider advocacy trends broadly, while others focus on specific cases, such as the role of African American churches in defeating the "One Florida" plan to end affirmative action in college admissions and state contracting or the partnership forged between police and inner-city black ministers to reduce crime in Boston during the 1990s.

Long March Ahead emphasizes the need for black churches to complement the excellent work they do in implementing policies set by others by getting more involved in influencing public policy themselves. These essays reveal where African American churches have directed most of their policy work--toward issues of racial justice and economic development--while pointing out that churches have been than less proactive in the policy arena in general. The contributors explore the efficacy of different means of public policy advocacy and service delivery, including faith-based initiatives. At the same time, they draw attention to trends which have constrained political involvement by African American churches: the increased professionalization of policy advocacy and lobbying; the underdevelopment of church organizational structures devoted to policy work; and tensions between religious imperatives and political activism. Long March Ahead is an important look at the political role of African American churches after the great policy achievements of the Civil Rights era.

Contributors: Cathy J. Cohen, Megan McLaughlin, Columba Aham Nnorum, Michael Leo Owens, Desiree Pedescleaux, Barbara D. Savage, R. Drew Smith, Emilie Townes, Christopher Winship

"R. Drew Smith's Long March Ahead is an excellent collection of essays which points to the strengths and weaknesses of black churches in the public policy arena. While they remain key mobilizing institutions in black communities, the churches have not developed a coherent voice on significant public policy issues such as welfare reform in the post-civil rights era. Everyone concerned about the future of black churches in the twenty-first century needs to ponder the implications of these important case studies."--Lawrence H. Mamiya, coauthor of The Black Church in the African American Experience