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Book Review
| A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow. By David L. Chappell. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 344 pp. $34.95, ISBN 0-8078-2819-X.)
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| A Stone of Hope is part of an expanding body of literature on the civil rights movement. Written by the historian David L. Chappell of the University of Arkansas, it challenges readers to reconsider the place of religion and ideas in the struggle to eliminate Jim Crow in the American South. |
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Much of the focus is on the intellectual roots of the civil rights movement. But Chappell's claim that black activists were driven, not by a liberal faith in human reason, but by a prophetic faith and tradition grounded in the Old Testament, is not persuasive. The testimonies of movement activists show unmistakably that they were inspired by both the vitality of religious faith and a belief in the power and ultimate triumph of human reason. Both were essential in the effort to uproot Jim Crow and to establish a totally integrated society. This is why the U.S. Constitution, with its appeal to reason, tolerance, and natural rights, was almost as important to the movement as the Bible. |
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