Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

Focusing on the National Baptist Convention, the largest religious movement among black Americans, Higginbotham shows readers how women were largely responsible for making the church a force for self-help, also revealing the challenges of black women to patriarchal theology. At once tough-minded and engaging, this book is central to an understanding of African-American social and cultural life and a critical chapter in the history of religion in America. Illustrations.