Faith in Black Power

"Pimblott's Faith in Black Power offers a new and unique interpretation of the relationship between the Black church and the Black power years of the Civil Rights Movement. Rooted in an enormous amount of newly discovered primary sources, this path-breaking book contributes greatly to our understanding of the second phase of the African American led Freedom struggle."—Journal of Pan African Studies

"Pimblott's ability to connect the dynamics of Cairo, Illinois, and the United Front to larger national histories of civil rights and social justice are quite commendable. Future microhistories of grassroots efforts like those described in this monograph would give us a much-needed nuanced interpretation of Black Power and black faith during a key period in the history of social justice movements."—Journal of Southern History

"[An] excellent monograph [that] shows the dynamic research currently being produced on black radical activism in the Ohio Valley. [It] challenges readers to reconceptualize what it meant to be a black activist, revealing the many ways previous understandings of radical activism have hidden the critical roles of understudied groups."—Ohio Valley History

"What she has produced here is a fine study on one small and decidedly local civil rights effort that found that Black Power rhetoric and black theology and traditional church-based faith and organizing were not at odds but in fact could, combined, prove both morally persuasive and organizationally effective."—American Historical Review

"Faith in Black Power is a stunning achievement. Masterly crafted and beautifully written, it adds new consideration to discourse surrounding the relationship between African-American Christianity and the black power movement."—Reading Religion

"Among the greatest strengths of Faith in Black Power is the depth of its detail. By diving into the intricacies of movement making in Cairo, Pimblott is able to offer more nuanced and historically specific analyses of two categories of particular interest to scholars of religion: 'black theology' and 'the black church.' Discussions of black theology can sometimes read as though they are essentially intellectual debates set in seminaries. Faith in Black Power takes those discussions into the streets, as it were, and emphasizes the 'United Front leaders [who] constructed a grassroots black power theology and movement culture capable of bridging intraracial divisions and sustaining the movement over the long haul.'"—The Journal of Religion