ABSTRACT
Simmering conflicts between Blacks and Latinos over jobs, housing, political power, and educational opportunities have attracted scholarly and popular attention for years (McClain and Karnig 1990; Meier and Stewart 1991; Meier et al. 2004; Vaca 2004). In 2003, a new chapter in the decades old story of Black-Brown relations began when the census reported, for the first time in history, that there were more Latinos than African Americans living in the United States. 1 Unsurprisingly, the announcement that Blacks were no longer the largest minority group in the United States has prompted African American and Latino leaders from across the country to publicly discuss the complexities of the relationship between their two communities. What is somewhat more surprising, however, is the uniformly positive and conciliatory tone that Black church leaders have used to characterize the interactions between Latinos and African Americans. The Reverend Al Sharpton, for example, recently claimed that, “We are not each other’s enemies. We’re not even each other’s friends. We are the same family. We may speak a different language, have a different skin texture, but we are in the same house. And if the house burns down we are all going to die together” (Herrera 1). Echoing these sentiments, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, has said, “Indeed the current circumstances and history of African Americans and Latinos, immigrant and non-immigrant, are indelibly linked. . . . They share a history of making a way where there was no way, creating community in often hostile environments, and fighting to carve out a better future for their children.” (Jackson A1). As Table 1 further illustrates, it is not difficult to find other examples of prominent African American religious leaders (those who lead particular congregations, hold denominational leadership positions, and/or have used their position to participate in electoral politics) using the pulpit to emphasize the similarities between Latinos and African Americans. 2
