An online reader
Part of our resources on and for chaplains of color
This reader documents the work of African American chaplains, highlighting their historical and current work and includes curated profiles. In addition, the reader provides resources for chaplains, students and educators interested in examining the interplay between race and the history of chaplaincy in the United States. These resources range from historical newspaper documentation illustrating the accomplishments of chaplains, to current books written by chaplains surrounding spiritual care in the present day.
Curated by the Spiritual Care Providers Network Advisory Committee.
Black Chaplain Profiles
Here we present profiles of Black chaplains past and present.
Click each image to view the chaplain’s profile.
Recommended Reading
Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom
Edited by Pamela Ayo Yetunde and Cheryl A. Giles
2020
Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care: Challenges of Care in a Neoliberal Age
Edited by Emmanuel Y. Lartey and Hellena Moon
2020
The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans
Almeda M. Wright
2017
Care for the Mental and Spiritual Health of Black Men: Hope to Keep Going
Nicholas Grier
2019
Through the Eyes of Women: Insights for Pastoral Care
Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner
1996
Race and Ethnicity: Cultural Roles, Spiritual Practices and Social Challenges
Edited by Jonathan K. Crennan
2010
Critical Perspectives on Black Education: Spirituality, Religion, and Social Justice
Edited by Noelle Witherspoon-Arnold, Melanie C. Brooks, Bruce Makoto Arnold
2014
New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration
Judith Weisenfeld
2017
Other Online Resources
Click the + symbol next to each heading to expand
Academic journal articles
J. Minton Batten, “Henry M. Turner, Negro Bishop Extraordinary,” Church History 7:3 (1938): 231-246. (Requires JSTOR subscription or library access)
Abena Boakyewa-Ansah, “Crafted ‘By Their Own Hands’: The African American Religious Experience in Union-Occupied North Carolina, 1862-1865,” The North Carolina Historical Review 94:3 (2017): 299-332. (Requires JSTOR subscription or library access)
Horace Mann Bond, “Faith in the Death-Chamber,” Phylon 1:2 (1940): 112-124. (Requires JSTOR subscription or library access)
Roger D. Cunningham, “‘A Lot of Fine, Study Black Warriors’: Texas’s African American ‘Immunes’ in the Spanish-American War,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 108:3 (2005): 344-367. (Requires JSTOR subscription or library access)
Newspaper articles
“Brings Charges Against Officer,” The New York Amsterdam News, October 9, 1937: 1. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Chaplain Reports of Jefferson Duty,“ New Journal and Guide, July 10, 1943: A16. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Crisis Story Stirs Capitol: Chaplains Says Morale Is Lowered By Belief That This Is White Man’s War,” New York Amsterdam News, September 30, 1944: A5. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Former Chicagoan Leads Revival at Progressive,” The Chicago Defender, October 13, 1962: 15. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Mayor Maps Moves Against Race Bias,” New York Amsterdam News, May 18, 1957: 1. (Requires ProQuest Subscription or library access)
“Negro Chaplain Corps Builds Morale of Men,” The Chicago Defender, December 19, 1942: 9. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Negro Chaplain Opens House of Representatives,” New Journal and Guide, July 13, 1963: B17. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Rev. Garner is Made Chaplain: Will Assume Duties at Harlem Hospital,” The New York Amsterdam News, July 27, 1935: 1. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
“Soldiers Check Threatened Jersey Riot: Passaic Scene Of Disturbance; Police Off Guard,” New Journal and Guide, July 10, 1943: A16. (Requires ProQuest subscription or library access)
Websites and magazines
Elizabeth Barber, “The Plight of a Hospital Chaplain during the Coronavirus Pandemic,” New Yorker, April 14, 2020. (Requires subscription)
Mahita Gajanan, “Watch a New York City Chaplain Discuss Guiding People Through Their Last Moments at a Distance Amid COVID-19,” TIME, April 21, 2020.
Kelly Starling, “The Rev. Jewelnel Davis: Chaplain, Columbia University,” Ebony, April 1999, 82.
Mattie Townson, “Lt. Chaplain Wilson Opens Up about Being a Black Female Military Chaplain,” Religion Unplugged, February 2, 2021.
Black American Chaplains: An Online Reader Project Team
Creator: Aja Antoine, Doctoral Student, University of California at Berkeley and Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Research Associate, with special thanks to Sophia Koolpe (Brandeis ’23), Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Research Assistant, and Jiaying Ding, University of California at Los Angeles
Content Curators: Marilyn Barnes, Asha Shipman, Barbara Savage, Kirstin Boswell, and Wendy Cadge, advisors to Spiritual Care Provider Networks
Web page: Michael Skaggs, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Director of Programs
The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab is grateful to the Fetzer Institute for its support of this project.