Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 3: ”There’s Plenty Good Room” • 73

and funeral care provision was made by churches to the needy. We have cared for the sick, the widow, the orphans, and started numerous hospitals and community ministry enterprises. It can easily be argued that the Church has been one of the world’s signature institutions that has stood with courage on behalf of the helpless, the vulnerable, the broken, and the defenseless. I can testify to this truth, even in my own heritage and family as a Black American. The historical Black Church has been one of the key organizations for the well-being and prosperity of the African-American community. Black denominations and associations started the first historically Black colleges, educational centers, and social justice organizations, creating the cache and reservoir of most Black leaders since the time of slavery. It has been an unrelenting voice crying for justice on behalf of the broken and the poor, and gave birth to some of its most famous and impactful leaders, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Virtually no one, either secular or religious, questions the overall importance of the Black church to life and well-being of the Black community. I can further argue more personally on this point, citing the Black church’s influence on my family, especially my father. My father’s name was Theodore Roosevelt Davis, born in 1905, a period of time that was particularly difficult to be Black in America. He was named after a president of the United States, as many young Black boys of his day were, as a sign for Black families of their patriotism and commitment to a nation that largely ignored their humanity and rights as citizens. He grew up in the South, as a young man joined the US Army during World War II, and served in the infantry. But, like virtually all Blacks who served in WWII, my father offered his services to a country that refused to recognize his basic humanity, in a country that segregated his living conditions, shut him out of the political, business, and social realm, and refused him participation even in the GI Bill.