The struggle to escape slavery and the subsequent march towards civil rights has long been sustained by the power of the black church. This was the centerpiece of the message delivered by Prof. Robert Watson on Feb. 22 at Mathews Memorial Library.

“The significance of black churches in history is unbelievable,” he said. Watson is an Assistant Professor and Assistant to the Dean of Liberal Arts at Hampton University. His fields of expertise include the histories of African Americans in the United States, Caribbean, and West Africa, as well as Reconstruction History.

Watson focused his remarks specifically on notions of the southern, rural black church and the role it has played in emancipation and empowerment.

Before the Civil War, enslaved people usually needed the master’s permission or presence to worship. Watson explained that the stripping of African religious customs was an effort to destroy the individual as part of the “seasoning” process.

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