Essay on Religion, Sexuality, and Identity in the New South

In the years subsequent to the Civil War, African-Americans experienced little advancement in American society and remained on the bottom of the social pyramid. Immigrants as well as African-Americans believed cities would solve their problems of poverty. As a result of their poor background, an image of inferiority was created by the Anglo- Americans for the ethnic minorities. Document C discusses how the urbanization of Birmingham, Alabama, a southern city, demonstrates the old confederacy as the New South. Suburbs were created in close proximity to the city and this suburbanization established further class distinction between the wealthy elite and the working class, particularly African-Americans. As the wealthy white class moved to suburbs, the African-Americans remained in the industrial city. The purpose of this document is to exemplify such segregation through the suburbanization of southern cities such as Birmingham, which became the most segregated city in

As an African-American in the United States, I participate in activities to help me identify with my race. Yes, there are many types of African-Americans, but we all share similar ideas, values, and traditions that bring everyone closer. As African-Americans, we strongly believe in religion. Since slavery, religion has played a tremendous role in contributing to our beliefs. We believe there is a greater divine who knows our purpose, and has the power to control it. In addition, we believe prayer changes things especially when times become rough and unbearable. It is common for Black children to “grow-up” in the church and attend with their families every Sunday. Although I am in college, this has not change. I attempt to at least go twice out the month.

A Research Paper on the “The Contribution of Baptists in the Struggle for Religious Freedom”

This book Pray the Gay Away by Bernadetta C. Barton discusses about certain areas in the United States called Bible Belts were they have made absolutely no progress in securing rights for gay people. They lag behind the rest of nation were people are accepting homosexuality (Pray the Gay Away 15). Barton argues that in small towns were Christian institutions serve as a foundation for both passive and active homophobia in these areas (Pray the Gay Away 19). This article is related to the play because the two dominant religions discussed in the play was Judaism and Mormonism and both religions strongly oppose homosexuality and this lead to homophobic attitudes and themes within the play.

Recent events that have highlighted racial tension in the United States have had even a larger number of opinions that vary regarding why the nation continues to struggle with such a challenging issue. In our text Chapter 6 titled “The City/Suburban Divide” (Judd & Swanstrom, 2015, p. 136) identifies a subject that very well may contribute to the tension. A reference to the “urban crisis” describes a landscape that is littered with “high levels of segregation, inequality and poverty, along with racial and ethnic tensions.” (Judd, et al., p. 165) Many scholars argue that the crisis was a result of the demographic changes the nation experienced following World War II as advancements in technology and infrastructure aided White Mobility. The term “White Flight” has been used to describe a massive relocation early in the twentieth century when the White Middle-Class population left the cities for suburban areas following the great migration.

By June of 1992 the General Board of the American Baptist Church was being pressured by some of their member churches to accept the practice of homosexuality within their denomination. A resolution called “Homosexuality and the Church”, which identified Gods plan for the fulfillment of sexual union to be one man and one woman in heterosexual, monogamous, and lifelong marriage, was narrowly defeated. The resolution further stated that “the redeeming love of Christ” is available to practicing homosexuals as it is to all who turn to him in faith and repentance.

The development of the suburbs has been appointed to be the result of the “white flight” from the inner cities. In the 1950’s black Americans moved northward to cities to find industrial jobs that were within walking distance. Discrimination in cities worsened, crime rates increased and educational facilities’ credentials weakened or gained bad reputations. The upper-class families left the cities and mass migrated to the suburbs to escape the increasing crime rates and worsening conditions. This movement was later termed the “white flight”. Every American wanted to begin building the “ideal family”: two parents, two children and maybe a pet or two. This newly invented middle-class prospered as

After reading “The Politics of Race and Public Space: Desegregation, privatization, and the Tax Revolt in Atlanta” by Kevin M. Kruse. I noticed many similarities in deindustrialization, metropolitan fragmentation, and the rights revolution between the piece and what we have discussed in class. Kruse states that when the desegregation of municipal spaces began to occur, everyone in Atlanta had the freedom to live in the best place that they could afford. There was metropolitan fragmentation, which is the segregating of a community into smaller municipal areas. White upper-class Atlantans fled to more private areas such as suburbs while poor and mostly black people were left with the city, effectively redlining the community.

This time in the post World War II era, many African Americans had began to become a more urbanized center of population, around 1970. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) The regular population included about 70 percent of just the natural population to live in more urbanized cities. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) Soon African Americans dominated, having 80 percent of their community to live and take the same benefits in more urbanized centers of the Unites States. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2) Only about 53 percent of African Americans and others who seemed to migrate stayed in the same area around the South. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2)

Community leaders in the city of Atlanta knew it was time for drastic changes, and by the 1920’s Tech-woods Flats were run over by unsafe and unsanitary structures, overcrowded residency, and poor ventilation. In response to this devastation among residency of Tech-wood Flats, in 1936 Atlanta built the first ever Tech-wood Home that provide temporary housing for white families, although Tech-wood populations was 94 percent black. African American families were forced to move out of their homes and look to stay somewhere else, while white families were able to move in. Things began to change in the 1960’s, when laws were passed prohibiting officials from continuing the practice on barring single mothers and welfare recipients from there complexes.

Brownell, Mixon, and MacLean all strive to present a straightforward explanation of how racial tensions led to the events discussed in their articles, and the impact in they presented in everyday southern society. All of these articles actively described the effects of racism, but also present a deeper understanding to the underlying causes from primary and secondary sources, directly contributed to the drastic changes, yet similarities still present in modern-day Atlanta.

By the late nineteenth century, Atlanta had rebuilt its economy and became the center of the economic boom in the South. Atlanta’s population in 1880 was 89,000 and by 1900 the population increased to 150,000. In 1880, there were

In the book “The Next Hundred Million – America in 2050” the author Joel Kotkin writes about the future of America when it reaches a population of 400,000 citizens. The central point of this book is that it gives an insight into the evolvement of metropolises, cities, immigrants, businesses, places of worship and families, both in early growing regions and in esteemed older ones. In chapter one: Four Hundred Million Americans it is said that “Suburbs are rarely dominated by one ethnicity, and alongside the temples and mosques you will also find churches and synagogues.” which supports the central point of the improvement and furthering of places of worships which wouldn’t have been so diverse if it wasn’t for the increase of immigrants. In

“More important, most African Americans did not benefit from the economic boom of the 1950s that allowed so many white Americans to purchase homes in the suburbs” (Hine & Harrold 569). In our history classes in almost every American school we were taught that the 1950s was a golden age due to the high consumerism, new businesses, the unparalleled prosperity, stay at home wives, and the old fashioned American barbeque on the weekends. Although this seemed like a golden age, it was much different for the people of color, especially the black community. The African Americans lost jobs, weren’t allowed to purchase homes due to the Jim Crow laws and the 1948 Shelley v. Kramer case, and their neighborhoods were deteriorating. Instances such as these

Throughout history, definitions of sexuality within a culture are created and then changed time after time. During these changes, we have seen the impact and power one individual or group can have over others. In the Late Nineteenth Century into the Early Twentieth Century, we see multiple groups of people and or authorities taking control over the idea of sex and how they believe society is being impacted by sex. At this point in time, society had groups of people who believed they had the power to control how society as whole viewed and acted upon sex. Those particular groups and ideas changed many lives and the overall definition of sexuality within that culture.