According to R. Drew Smith, director of the Public Influences of African American Churches Project, contemporary black church activism has centered around electoral activity, and only infrequently around direct public policy advocacy; the potential influence of black churches among broader publics has been significantly impaired by a lack of black church-related infrastructure devoted to policy advocacy and intergenerational civic interaction.
Jamye Wooten
Nicole Lee
Nicole Lee, immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and Jamye Wooten, founder of Kinetics launch the Black Church & Public Life Series, a public forum examining current issues at the intersection of faith & politics.
Inspired by the work of Dr. R. Drew Smith and a mentee of the late Dr. Ronald Walters, internationally renowned scholar and activist, Wooten developed the Black Church & Public Life Institute (BCPL). Under the leadership of Dr. Ron Walters, director of the Center for African American Studies at the University of Maryland, BCPL was to be housed under the Center for African American Leadership which was closed the following semester before the proposed launch.
In this spirit and with the guiding words of Dr. Ron Walters, “What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People?”, Nicole Lee, also a mentee of Ron Walters, and Jamye Wooten launched the Black Church & Public Life Series.
Their launch event featured a reception and fundraiser for Rev. William Barber, President of the North Carolina State NAACP and leader of the Moral Mondays Movement. Moral Mondays is the largest movement in the South since Selma, Alabama and has organized over 80,000 people to march on the state capitol. http://
Photo Credit: Roy Lewis (C) More Photos
