"The negro can go into the circus, the theater, the cars … but cannot go into an Evangelical Christian meeting,” an elderly Frederick Douglass exclaimed in 1885 to a crowd in the nation’s capital. They had gathered to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Washington, DC, a result of the first emancipation law passed by the U.S. government in 1862. Three years later, in 1865, Union troops ordered the freedom of slaves in Texas on a day that came to be known as Juneteenth, and the 13th Amendment forbade the practice throughout the country.
But for the famed abolitionist, the meeting wasn’t just a celebration. It was also an occasion to critique evangelicalism, a movement with which he had a complicated relationship.
Read Full Article »