Center for Religion & Civic Culture

At the beginning of Black History month we were greeted with tragic news: Don Cornelius, the founder of "Soul Train," committed suicide. While this event has little to do with religion on its face, a story on CNN (aptly titled "How Don Cornelius Became the Pope of Soul") offered a powerful reminder of the role of culture, art and music in bridging racial divides and in the civil rights movement itself. "The civil rights movement changed the legal structure," the authors wrote, "Cornelius changed the cultural structure. Changing the culture can change hearts in a way that protests can't."

As we remember the ways Don Cornelius brought racial groups together through music, we may also reflect upon how, almost a century ago, Pentecostalism once brought blacks and whites together through religion. Blending ecstatic musical celebration and crossing racial divides, the beginning of Pentecostalism in the United States is a fascinating story of spiritual and cultural innovations that upended the racial barriers of the time. It is a history that seems to have been forgotten, however, as Pentecostal began to splinter into different black and white denominations. In the wake of Don Cornelius' death, the history of Pentcostalism should be a reminder that we cannot take social change for granted--progress requires vigilance.

Early Pentecostalism was seen as a potentially subversive movement that worried the FBI enough to work with local law enforcement and the Justice Department to place Charles Mason, an African-American Pentecostal leader and part of the 1906 Azusa Street revival, under close surveillance. Federal officials were concerned not only about Mason's interracial following but also his pacifist views in the context of World War I. The racial and political overtones of the fear sparked by this upstart religious group arguably foreshadowed the current surveillance of American Muslims throughout the United States.

Yet Islam is hardly an upstart religion in this county. Reporters could illuminate the early stories of African Muslims who were brought to the United States as slaves, and how African-American Muslims continue to shape expressions of Islam in the U.S. for themselves, for the children of immigrants and for countless converts in every shade and color.

Continue reading the post at the USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion site.

Photo of Don Cornelius from the AP.