Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North

good book just what i needed to review some things that i had been thinking about for years

This book is extremely important in that it gives a full perception of "newer," or less traditional African American bodies which made a significant impact on the black religious experience. Arthur Huff Fauset (1899 - 1983?) was a novelist and anthropologist whose interest in the Black Church may have stemmed from the fact that his father was an A.M.E. minister, even though he died when Fauset was an infant. His mother was white and a Christian convert of Jewish heritage (Fauset, 1971, 127). He was a member of a literary family: his older sister, Jessie Redmond Fauset (1884-1961), was a novelist and poet, and was considered "the most prolific of the Renaissance writers of the genteel school" by Calvacade magazine. Arthur Huff Fauset's 1944 book, Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults in the Urban North, provides a glimpse of five black religious bodies: the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc.; the United House of Prayer for All People; Church of God (Black Jews); the Moorish Science Temple of America; and the Father Divine Peace Mission Movement. These were chosen because they were "among the most important and best-known cults of their respective types, and hence among the most representative" (Fauset, 1971, 10). Using participant observation, he presents their origin, a portrait of their respective leader and/or founder, their organizational forms, and an explanation of their practices and rituals. He was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and was further prepared by studying folklore "extant among Blacks in Philadelphia, British West Indies, Nova Scotia and in the South" in 1931. His master's thesis, "Folklore From Nova Scotia," was the first collection of black folklore in Canada (Fauset 1971, 127). Other books included accounts of Sojourner Truth and a biographical account of the American Negro. He was a contributor of many essays, short stories, articles and book reviews to Crisis and Opportunity. He also wrote several novels, including African Lament on Shaka, King of the Zulus. According to the biographical account, Fauset was involved in "militant civil rights activism." His friends included Alain Locke, W. E. B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell, Paul Robeson, and A. Philip Randolph. This lead to work as the editor of the Philadelphia edition of Powell's newspaper, The People's Voice. He was also honorably discharged from the Army just before being commissioned during World War II due to his prior civil rights activities (Fauset 1971, 128). In the introduction to the 1971 edition of the book, John Szwed states that Fauset's book is important because it gives a heretofore unavailable description of the practices and beliefs of blacks in the United States: The beginning point for understanding any religious institution is at least elementary knowledge of its practices and beliefs. But it is a sad fact that we have better descriptions -- incomplete as they