Abstract
I’ve been asked to say a few informal words about the origin and development of Black Theology; a subject about which I and others, like Gayraud Wilmore and Jacquelyn Grant have written and talked about for more than 20 years. Contemporary Black Theology has two main sources. The first one is the Civil Rights Movement as defined by the life and ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the second source is the Black Power/Black Consciousness Movement defined by the life and ministry of Malcolm X.
Black Theology arose as Black theologians and preachers attempted to reconcile Black consciousness and Blackness with the Christian faith. It arose out of the attempt to reconcile what Malcolm X was saying with what Martin King was saying.