The Black Interfaith Project at Interfaith Youth Corps [IFYC], an initiative to spotlight the longstanding diversity of Black religious life, recently celebrated its launch in Washington, D.C.
“The interfaith experience of Black life in America has often been overlooked and unacknowledged,” said the Rev. Frederick Davie, IFYC senior advisor for Racial Equity.
“The Black Interfaith Project seeks not only to rectify this unfortunate past but to celebrate the richness of interfaith bridge building within Black communities and thereby enrich the entire interfaith experience of the nation.”
IFYC is a national non-profit “working towards an America where people of different faiths, worldviews, and traditions can bridge differences and find common values to build a shared life together,” according to its website.
The Black Interfaith Project “centers the diversity of religious, spiritual, and philosophical expressions that have animated the Black experience in America,” according to a release.
Additionally, it will explore bridgebuilding between corresponding groups, and the implications for Black communities and America as a nation. The project is supported by a $1 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
The United States prides itself on being the world’s first religiously diverse democracy. Perhaps no community has negotiated the complexities of religious diversity more impactfully than Black people. Still, much of what we think of as ‘interfaith cooperation’ has emerged from principally white spaces, with Black voices systemically underrepresented,” Davie said.
“The Black Interfaith Project maintains that some of the most inspiring crossing of religious boundaries and many of the most meaningful moments of interfaith cooperation in American history have come out of the Black experience, from the Underground Railroad to the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights movement to the interfaith coalition that elected President Obama.”
The cornerstone of the Black Interfaith Project is a fellowship program “which convenes Black professionals from a wide range of sectors and worldviews who are engaged in interfaith bridgebuilding through their lived experience, scholarship, and civic engagement,” according to the release.
The project’s steering committee includes
-
Mesha Arant – Manager of Administration & Programs at 3Arts
-
Alia Bilal – Deputy Director, Inner-City Muslim Action Network
-
Dr. Marla Frederick – Professor of Religion & Culture, Emory Candler School of Theology; President, American Academy of Religion
-
Dr. Peter Manseau – Curator of American Religious History, National Museum of American History and Director, Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History, Smithsonian Institution
-
Sabrina Motley – Director, Smithsonian Folklife Festival
-
Dr. Eboo Patel – Founder and President, IFYC
-
Dr. Yolanda Pierce – Professor & Dean, Howard University School of Divinity
-
Teri Simon – Director of Executive Office, IFYC
-
Dr. Josef Sorett – Professor & Chair, Dept of Religion; Director, Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics & Social Justice, Columbia University
-
Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton – Dean of Wait Chapel, School of Divinity, Chair of Religion and Society, Wake Forest University
-
Dr. Eric Williams – Curator of Religion, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
