Politics and Social Change Workshop (Hybrid)
Date and Time
Location
"Race, Radio, and White Reaction: Jim Crow's Final Years and the Origins of Christian Nationalism's Biggest Media Company"
Speaker:
Matthew Brooke, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.
Contacts:
Clayton Covington
claytoncovington@g.harvard.edu
Cat O'Donnell
codonnell@g.harvard.edu
Attendance Information:
- Physical Location: William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Room 450
- Attend this event virtually.
Abstract:
Christian Right broadcasting companies, or what I call CRBCs, are important players in US politics. By mobilizing the masses and engaging in elite political advocacy, CRBCs are pushing the right to adopt an antidemocratic, Christian nationalist agenda. Yet scholars have not explained when and why CRBCs emerged, or how they developed their innovative and enduring organizational form. I demonstrate that CRBCs emerged two decades earlier than the current literature suggests, as a reaction to the democratic gains of the civil rights revolution in the American South. Building from these findings, I contribute to theory on the dynamics of racial stability and change in the US. Theories of race and racism tend to narrate an account of stage-based progress rooted in processes of modernization. By contrast, I argue that organizational and social practices of white supremacy that emerged in the late Jim Crow South have proved to be remarkably durable.