Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 06/J.R Glenn

J.R Glenn Overview J.R Glenn was born in the countryside of Charlotte, North Carolina. As a kid, he worked on the farm of his uncle instead of going to school. Later on, Glenn worked as a pastor preaching at different churches. He was interviewed by Cora D and Dudley C for the Federal Writer’s Project in 1939.

Biography J.R Glenn was a Black preacher born in the countryside of Charlotte, North Carolina. As a child, he worked to help his uncle on a farm and oftentimes went without much food for lengthy periods of time. Glenn and other Black men around him more times than not relied on farming to provide for their families because of limited job opportunities due to discrimination. Instead of going to school, he worked on the farm. Not going to school was common for Black children in the South. Also, Blacks in the 1930’s did not usually hold well-paying jobs due to the lack of education among the Black population. Glenn finally got his chance to go to school after selling a calf he received. After his schooling, Glen was ordained as a preacher in his church joining “the annual conference.” After two years in the church, he got married. The churches Glenn pastored in were usually run down. Glenn did what he could to raise money to fix the churches he pastored at so they could look more decent. Glenn spoke of a popular preacher who helped people that regular churches didn’t reach. J.R Glenn said, “His church has done good for some of our people.” According to Stephan Patrick McKinney, a Black preacher's followers were motivated to follow him by “his recognition of the distinctive theological and religious needs of Black people.” The followers of the preacher followed him because of his recognition of their unique experiences, and the same was also true for the followers of J.R Glenn. Many Black preachers including Glenn recognized the distinct needs of their black followers theologically and religiously. Glenn later received a church appointment in Tennessee where his daughter married a man “old enough to be her father, but ended up getting a divorce.” Before she got the divorce, Glenn believed divorce to be a sin, but he saw what the marriage did to his daughter and his beliefs changed. According to Charlie Dates, “Amongst theology for black pastors, there is a significant school of thought in Black preaching scholarship which considers the scripture as important but not authoritative.” Even though Glenn held scripturally that divorce was wrong, he realized the reality of his daughter’s divorce communicated something different. Glenn stated at the end of the interview that when he gets older, he expects that his daughters will take care of him. Black Preaching and Theology McKinney says, “The first Black churches were in the South, and they were all Baptist.” The motivation for Black preachers and churchgoers was the recognition of the unique theological and experiential lens through which Black individuals see the world. Black preachers were also motivated to find solutions for the challenges Black persons faced in a world of discrimination. In order to accomplish the means of finding solutions and advocating for change, Black preachers utilized the Bible and their interpretations of it. Dates says,“Black preaching is characterized by unique thoughts and interpretations of the Bible that grow out of the Black religious experience.” The Black theology was distinctly its own resulting from seeing the Bible through the lens of the Black experience. Dates also writes, “To say that all black preaching embraces terms like inerrancy or infallibility would be dishonest. And yet it would be equally deceiving to suggest that the vast majority of Black preachers and Black churches did not maintain a grand view of scripture’s accuracy, faultlessness and authority.” McKinney says the imperatives that motivated Black preachers to start their church and their followers to follow them were, “The recognition of the distinctive theological and religious needs of Black people; and second, the application of theology to the practical solution of immediate physical and social problems (George 1973).” Black Farming and Inequality Black individuals during the early and mid 20th century were affected by discrimination and oppression. During this time, private citizens as well as state governments openly discriminated against Black Americans. David Kenneth says, “Nevertheless, until the gains of the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights Movement, private citizens and state governments openly discriminated against African Americans with seeming impunity.” According to Jaqueline Jones, “After emancipation, Whites attempted to limit Blacks to menial jobs.” Alongside Blacks having limited jobs, many Black children were unable to go school during the early and mid 20th century. Black families spent less than Whites on education. Kenneth states, “Throughout the South expenditures for African-American education paled in comparison to that accorded whites.” Due to the lack of education among Black individuals, farming was a common profession in the Black community. According to Frank Martin, “In 1900, the most common occupation for African Americans was farming.” Also, according to Thomas Maloney, “About half of Black men and about thirty-five percent of Black women who reported an occupation to the Census said that they worked as a farmer or a farm laborer." Ashton Herron stated, “A common barrier for Black farmers entering and staying in agriculture is the system of oppression, discrimination, and racism in the agricultural system of the United States.”  Banks refused to give aid to Black farmers and White farmer’s unions did not include Black individuals. Herron also says, “Although Black farmers have faced historical discrimination, current research highlights those who have and continue to reclaim land and space through farming."

References Dates, Charlie E. “Donald Parson and the Understudied Burden of Biblical Black Preaching.” PhD diss., Trinity International University, 2016. ProQuest. Accessed July 7, 2020. http://search.proquest.com/central/docview/1883864120/abstract/6ACB37AB91C74B71PQ/18

Herron, Ashton Lear. “Experiences of Black Farmers in Louisiana.” Master’s thesis., Southeastern Louisiana University, 2016. ProQuest. Accessed July 7, 2020.

Interview, Bennett, Cora and Crawford, Dudley on J.R Glenn, July 26, 1939, Folder 298, Federal Writers Project Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill.

Jones, Jacqueline. “Black Workers Remember.” Last modified November 30, 2000. The American Prospect. https://prospect.org/api/content/61161df5-da9d-5de0-a9ab-f2106bd59e4f/.

Kenneth, David. “Oppression of African Americans in the First Half of the 20th Century.” Last modified March 3, 2019. The Classroom. Accessed July 7, 2020. https://www.theclassroom.com/oppression-african-americans-first-half-20th-century-12836.html.

Maloney, Thomas. “African Americans in the Twentieth Century” Last modified 2020. Economic History Association. Accessed July 7, 2020. https://eh.net/encyclopedia/african-americans-in-the-twentieth-century/.

Martin, Frank. “Sources of Human Capital Accumulation For African-Americans During the 20th Century”, 2010, ProQuest. Accessed July 7, 2020. https://search-proquest-com.proxy141.nclive.org/central/docview/521257237/4C6793F9DBF44550PQ/9?accountid=13217.

McKinney, Stephan P. “Secularization Theory and Black Protestantism: Patterns of Differentiation in a Contemporary Black Church”. PhD diss., Drew University, 2010. ProQuest. Accessed July 7, 2020. http://search.proquest.com/central/docview/746117114/abstract/6ACB37AB91C74B71PQ/9.