3/17/2023 0 Comments Bible belt![]() Having re-inserted themselves in power all over the southeast, even in counties and communities where they were in the minority, white supremacists closed ranks to oppose the Brown vs. Furthermore, since then more than 75% of the country’s racial lynchings have taken place in this region, as white supremacists sought to keep Black people “in their place.” The violent struggles during Reconstruction to suppress the Black vote and otherwise re-enslave Black people were often led by the Ku Klux Klan, which touted itself as a Christian organization. As one proceeds from slavery, it is the same region, the southeast, that most visibly and adamantly promoted Jim Crow laws and practices. Furthermore, many of them interpreted Biblical scriptures as justifications for slavery. Writing, therefore, in the 1820s, one could very well have referred to the southeastern United States as “the Slavery Belt.” Many white inhabitants accepted Black slavery as an institution. We say that it may be coincidental because often individuals create or search for “justifications” to support what they have done, are doing, or plan to do. It may be coincidental that many of its white inhabitants embraced protestant Christian church membership. And its subsequent economic, social, and political actions set it apart. Its adoption and legal embrace of slavery promoted a political philosophy. As a region, please note that it has been somewhat distinct since roughly 100 years before Mencken’s writing. Here it is clear that we are talking roughly about the southeastern section of the United States of America. Likewise, if one only looked at the region in those latter years, there may not be as serious a question raised as there is. If that was the full story, Mencken’s tag would be quite accurate and perhaps even warranted. It is true that from 1924 to this day, compared to other regions of the country, this Bible Belt has had its residents express their faith more openly and attend church more frequently. He dubbed it such because the majority of the inhabitants professed to believe in protestant Christian teachings and to have a preference for public policy based upon Biblical principles. Mencken referred to the region inclusive of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the Florida panhandle as the Bible Belt. Ninety-seven years ago, journalist and social commentator H.L.
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