Essay On African American Religious Experience

In analyzing the religious experience of African Americans, one must first understand the trials and tribulations faced by the African American before the religious experience encountered can be fully realized. In 1619, the first ship caring African American slaves arrived in Virginia. Until 1808, 10 million African Americans were enslaved throughout the Americas. During this time, many African rituals and traditions, relating to African Heritage, also became transplanted to the new surroundings (Unit 3, Lecture 5). In South American religions, African Heritage had a large influence on South American religions. The religions incorporated “characteristics such as worship of multiple gods, veneration of ancestors, African-style drumming and dancing, rites of initiation, priests and priestesses, spirit possession, ritual sacrifice, sacred emblems and taboos, extended funerals, and systems of divination and magic” (Unit 3, Lecture 5). Unfortunately, the British hold over the slaves made it
At the same time, African Americans are introduced to the concepts of the Muslim religion. Though slavery played a large role during the history of the African American religious experience, now segregation played a large part being that Martian Luther King, a Baptist minister, and Malcolm X, a Muslim, play intricate parts during the Civil Rights movement. Martian Luther King, believing in Christian and Jewish scripture that both European and African Americans can integrate to be a united front. Malcolm X unable to forgot the European American of 244 of atrocities towards African American slaves, going as far as calling the European Americans to white devil, and calling for a separation from America. One an integrationist, one a nationalist. Both essential to the abolishment of segregation (Unit4, Lecture