Session 4: Religious Liberty & Segregation (Full Session)

In the Jim Crow era, Southern churches and religious communities were integral to the maintenance of legally enforced white supremacy. In this session, learn how racist laws and policies were justified on religious grounds, how a theological emphasis on personal salvation served to shield the Church from responsibility for systemic racial inequalities, and how legal approaches to religious liberty during Jim Crow failed to protect Black religious freedom.
Speakers:
Prof. Brandon Paradise, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School
Dr. Carolyn Dupont, Professor of History, Eastern Kentucky University
This is Session 4 of the Black Religious Liberty Curriculum (BRLC), a 12-part video series of conversations on the intersection of race, religion, and the law, featuring law professors, historians, theologians, religious studies scholars, activists, and preachers. The curriculum was created by Columbia Law School’s Law, Rights, and Religion Project with support from the Columbia Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life and the Proteus Fund’s Rights, Faith, and Democracy Collaborative. Video editing by ANKOSfilms.
Watch the rest of the curriculum series, at LawRightsReligion.org/our-work/brlc