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"PBS Show Examines Black Americans' Faith"

by Frazier Moore (AP, June 19, 2003) 

An ambitious goal: To shine light on the religious faith of black Americans, while exploring what sealed their devotion across three centuries of history.

That is what "This Far By Faith" sets out to do. Airing 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday (June 24-26) on PBS (check local listings), the six one-hour segments add up to a sweeping portrait of the black experience — from the arrival of the early African slaves through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Depression, the civil rights era and the advent of the 21st century.

This becomes a sobering journey as it revisits innumerable hardships and indignities. But it is uplifting, too, with one point repeatedly brought home: Black Americans' spiritual focus has been more than a survival mechanism; it is a natural state of being.

"There is no word for religion in many African languages," explains the narrator in the series' first moments, "for in a traditional African view of the world, there is no place where God is not."

In countless versions, such a world view has served black Americans to the present day.

"To grossly oversimplify: They don't separate their Sunday morning ritual from the rest of their lives," says June Cross, a producer of the series. (Just consider black Americans' claim on the word "soul" to signify their shared ethnic awareness and pride.)

Cross cites a Harris Poll conducted in January that found higher levels of religious belief among blacks than among whites and Hispanics.

"Whatever I'm doing," she says, "there is the hand of Providence that's working with me as an African-American."

"Our faith is constant," says executive producer Dante James, "and it's not at anyone else's whim or influence. It's something that we own and we control."

As a result, the series is "an affirmation that spirituality has been and probably will continue to be the backbone of the African-American fight for justice in this country," James says.

The first hour invokes two very different 19th-century black leaders, both of whom were sustained by their faith: a freed slave in New York who renamed herself Sojourner Truth and became a nationally known advocate for equality and justice; and Denmark Vesey, a carpenter and would-be insurrectionist who plotted an uprising to kill white oppressors in Charleston, S.C., but was found out, tried and executed.

Later in the series, viewers meet contemporary figures including the Rev. Cecil Williams, who nearly 40 years ago took over a dying church in San Francisco's blighted Tenderloin district and gave it new vitality through wide-open community involvement. "The church," he declares, "had a commitment to help us become free."

Christian love squared off nonviolently against segregation during the modern civil rights movement, which drew in activists like a young Philadelphia woman named Prathia Hall. She went on to become an eminent educator and preacher.

Others looked elsewhere than Christianity for answers. Among them is W. Deen Mohammed, son of the late Elijah Mohammed, founder of the Nation of Islam, who recounts a quest that led him to part company with his father, then, years later, return to the fold, which he renamed the Muslim American Society. It claims a membership of 2 million today.

More than five years in the works, "This Far By Faith" was conceived by Henry E. Hampton, whose Blackside Inc. documentaries include the epic civil rights history "Eyes on the Prize." Upon Hampton's untimely death in 1998, James, a past associate, took over the new project.

"It was a great professional opportunity," says James. "It's not every day you walk into a fully funded series. But it was also about fulfilling a personal commitment to Henry," whose death, James readily admits, ignited his own crisis of faith.

Hampton's vision now realized, "This Far By Faith" should prove illuminating for viewers from all backgrounds. The series taps religion as a useful way to examine black history. But it avoids any "holier-than-thou" stance for the race.

"One of the underlying threads to the entire series is that this is a human experience," says James. "For most people, a religious or spiritual experience is very much a part of being fully human, and what we're saying is this: Wherever you find your spirituality, it's beyond any racial or ethnic connotations."