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This article explores how W. E. B. Du Bois linked the Black church to Pan-Africanism and civil rights.

February 12, 2026Journal of Religious History0 citationsOpen Access

Desegregationist Pan‐African Spiritual Strivings: Du Bois, the Black Church and the Critique of Imperialism*

Key Points

This article explores how W. E. B. Du Bois linked the Black church to Pan-Africanism and civil rights.
Theoretical analysis of Du Bois's writings
Historical examination of the Black church’s role
Critique of Christian reformers' narratives
Du Bois argued that the Black Church can challenge negative stereotypes of Africa.
He proposed 'spiritual striving' as a means to promote civil rights.
The article highlights the Black church's potential for fostering a desegregated global society.

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that W. E. B. Du Bois grounded his seminal conceptualisation of “the Negro church” in a Pan‐Africanist challenge to how Christian reformers and missionaries' usage of “Darkest Africa” as a metaphor for modern urban vice and poverty denigrated Africa and the African diaspora while promoting a segregated, imperialist version of the social gospel. Du Bois indicated that to undo the logic of “Darkest Africa,” African American churches should cultivate Black “striving” for what he viewed as the overlapping ideals of Pan‐Africanism and civil rights in the United States. Through this “spiritual striving,” the Black church could be the wellspring of a desegregated, decolonised global civil society.

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