Race, Religion, and the Pulpit

The history of one man's work during the Great Migration to create a cultural cornerstone for Detroit's African American community.

Black churches were essential community centers that made, reshaped, and galvanized urban areas during the Great Migration. In Detroit, there was one church and one minister in particular that demonstrated this power of the pulpit—Second Baptist Church of Detroit and its nineteenth pastor, the Reverend Robert L. Bradby. In Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Rev. Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit, author Julia Marie Robinson explores how Bradby's church became the catalyst for economic empowerment, community building, and the formation of an African American working class in Detroit. Robinson highlights Rev. Bradby's efforts as an activist and "race leader" by examining the role the minister played in high-profile events, such as the organizing of Detroit's NAACP chapter, the Ossian Sweet trial of the mid-1920s, the Scottsboro Boys trials in the 1930s, and the controversial rise of the United Auto Workers in Detroit in the 1940s.