Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds

Abstract

selections from Du Bois’s classic The Souls of Black Folk to show how traditional American folk songs and Negro spirituals both suggest that liberation serves as the basis of African American religious life. Likewise, the presence of a distinct civil religion within ‘‘the veil’’ constructs a fringe racial group embodying a ‘‘double consciousness’’ that non-’’Negro’’ Americans can at best study but never fully comprehend. ‘‘Such a double life, with double thoughts, double duties and double social classes, must give rise to double words and double ideals, and tempt the mind to pretense or to revolt, to hypocrisy or to radicalism’’ (quoting Du Bois, p. 156). Wortham selected chapters that capture the lamentations of a people enduring emotional torments of fear and despair while the legacy of slavery remains a part of the living memory of some, and a nearslave system for the masses living the culturally foreign plantation life in lieu of the tribal life. Overall, the book favorably assesses the Black Church as an institution that gave rise to the ‘‘New Negro’’ of the early twentieth century, predominately second-generation postbellum. ‘‘The Church preserved in itself the remnants of African tribal life and became after emancipation the center of Negro social life’’ (p. 190). Present scholars can look to the Black Church as a sacred space that cultivates collective behavior through, in some cases, intercongregational networks. The book provides raw data from extensive survey research from the Atlanta University Conference Studies, which illustrate how the churches functioned as socialization agents in terms of religious identity formation, care giving, and social etiquette. W. E. B. Du Bois and the Sociology of the Black Church and Religion has the potential to appeal to a broad audience beyond social science scholars, including religious practitioners and activists. Within the social sciences, Wortham integrates a significant aspect of the African diaspora with the religious and policy discussions that can capture the interest of critical race theorists through the book’s accounts of the undercurrents of U.S. laws that derive from anxieties about not only black criminality, but also black success. The book can inform clergy and officers of historically African American churches that have experienced intergenerational declines in membership and attendance. Early in the book, Wortham notes that the decline in the number of young adults in the church began in the early part of the twentieth century. As the twentieth century progressed, Black Church demographics became predominately elderly. In addition to the notable disappearance of young adults, many scholars have overlooked the idea that church attendance has also declined due to smaller family sizes. However, throughout this book Wortham implies that a sense of urgency existed during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century that has become less prominent. ‘‘Du Bois maintains that the Black Church appeals primarily to the African American middle class, and its purpose is to provide moral instruction and strengthen families’’ (p. 118). A large segment of the African American population does not selfidentify as middle class, with relatively less familial capital and weakened kinship bonds when compared to the prior century. Activists can reference the book as it draws from social scientific methods to study potential means of resistance and navigation.