THE BLACK PRESENCE AT THE WORLDS-PARLIAMENT-OF-RELIGIONS, 1893

Countering traditional views of the World's Parliament of Religions as primarily an event of religious pluralism, this paper examines how the African Methodist Episcopal Church transformed the Parliament into a world court of opinion regarding racial equality. Using Higginbotham's idea of the Black church as a 'discursive, critical arena', I show how Black religionists constructed a rhetoric of equality, challenging the themes of unity that pervaded the Parliament. I argue that in locating their challenge at the world's fair, a major event of cultural self-examination, Blacks acted out some of the most original purposes of a church, working with symbols to generate reform.