2022/03/01 by Connor S. Kenaston · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Business, Management and Accounting · #Race, History, and American Society #American Political and Social Dynamics #American History and Culture
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/mah.2022.2
openalex publication_date 2022/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The idea that friendship and dialogue are the first steps to making a better world has a history. During the first half of the twentieth century, American Protestants powered a national movement for dialogue and cooperation among people of different races. In the 1940s and 1950s, Black leaders in predominantly white ecumenical Protestant institutions created a series of workshops and dialogue guides that popularized the notion that interracial exchange would lead to action. Backed by their institutions’ financial, moral, and organizational resources, they transformed both the interracial movement and dominant understandings of how to change society. Yet, while Black ecumenical leaders insisted that facilitating interracial exchange was just the beginning form of action in ending discrimination, they unintentionally facilitated problematic assumptions about the standalone power of “first steps” in creating a more equitable society.