Photo: Courtesy C. Eric Lincoln Lecture Series Collection Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, Fair use image
Charles Eric Lincoln was a renowned educator and sociologist. He authored several of the most important scholarly works on the religious movements of Black Americans.
In revisiting the legend and legacy of Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, here are 13 things to know.
Born June 23, 1924, in Athens, Alabama, Lincoln was abandoned by his parents and raised by his maternal grandparents. He attended the Trinity School in Athens. The Trinity School was an educational institution created by the New England-based Congregational Church to provide secondary education needs of local African-Americans students. During this time, Lincoln had to pick cotton to earn money to purchase his books and pay the annual $3 tuition.
While at Trinity, Lincoln edited the school newspaper, Campus Chronicle and graduated as the valedictorian of his class in 1939.
After high school, Lincoln moved to Chicago. He worked during the day and took night classes at the University of Chicago. Then, he was drafted into the United States Navy in 1943 and served until the end of World War II in September 1945.
Following the war, Lincoln moved to Memphis and enrolled in Lemoyne College, where h went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and sociology in 1947. In 1954, he earned his master’s degree in philosophy from Fisk University and a bachelor of divinity degree from the Chicago Divinity School two years later. In 1957, Lincoln became an ordained minister. And, in 1960 he received a Ph.D. in sociology and social ethics from Boston University.
Lincoln authored his first book, “The Black Muslims in America,” and it was published in 1961. The book marked the first scholarly research on the Nation of Islam.
Though the original was published in 1961, there were third edition updates a second 1973 release by adding a new postscript by Lincoln and a new foreword by Professor Aminah B. McCloud.
“The Black Muslims in America established a genre of analysis that has since seen many imitators. C. Eric Lincoln’s style is precise; his approach is scientific, and his arguments are cogent. This work will long remain one of the standard examples of how to discuss religious organizations,” praised professor and philosopher Molefi Kete Asante, a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies. Asante is currently professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University, where he founded the PhD program in African-American Studies.
Of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, Lincoln said, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was prophetic in his anticipation of the kind of world the new millennium would bring. As a matter of fact, he was 50 years ahead of his time!”
Mr. Muhammad’s “contributions to the recovery of a significant element in the religious heritage of African Americans, and his successful laying of the groundwork for the re-establishment of that experience speaks convincingly for itself. Islam is one of the great religions of the world, and it will play an appropriate role in the spiritual life of the new millennium all over the globe,” Lincoln said, as per The Final Call newspaper.
“We, in America, can thank Mr. Muhammad for the major role he played in helping us to understand and prepare for what lies ahead in the multi-culture where religion is so basic to human understanding and cooperation. Time may yet prove that Elijah Muhammad is one of the most important religious pioneers America has produced,” Lincoln told The Final Call in an interview.
Lincoln worked at Portland State College (now University) in Oregon, Union Theological Seminary, and Fordham University, both in New York. In 1970, Lincoln became the founding president of the Black Academy of Letters. Three years later, he returned to Fisk University as professor of Religion and Sociology and chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophical Studies, according to Black Past. In 1976, Lincoln became a professor of religion and culture at Duke University until his retirement in 1993. His teaching career also included positions at Brown University and the University of Ghana.
Published in 1964, his book “My Face is Black,” an exploration of racism during the civil rights era. It was one of Lincoln’s many examinations of race, a topic that was a thread through his life and career. One of his sons, Less C. Lincoln, told The New York Times, ”The thing to understand about my dad and racism is that it was a studyable adversary to him. It is something we can have control over. Through education and awareness, it can be eradicated.”
Dr. Lincoln had been recording his thoughts and observations on race in a series of notebooks for more than 50 years, but those notebooks and most of his personal possessions were destroyed in a fire at his home in 1991, The New York Times reported.
While teaching at Fisk, Lincoln published the book “The Black Church Since Frazier” (1974). The book became a leading work on the subject.
In 1984, Lincoln published another landmark work, the book “Race, Religion and the Continuing American Dilemma.” In 1990, he co-authored his last major scholarly work, the book “The Black Church in the African American Experience.” He co-authored the book with his former student, Lawrence Mamiya, and it was based on a 10-year study and interviews of more than 2,000 Black American ministers in the major religious denominations. It was a “landmark study of the political and social influence of religious institutions in Black America,” according to The New York Times.
Lincoln also wrote fiction including the book “The Avenue, Clayton City,” which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Fiction in 1988, and poetry. One book of his poetry is entitled “This Road Since Freedom: Collected Poems.” In 1996, Lincoln published the book “Coming Through the Fire: Surviving Race and Place in America,” which is a personal history that stressed people should work together for the greater good.
Lincoln started his professional career as a sales representative for Pepsi Cola, then was a manager for a Memphis nightclub, and a road manager for the Birmingham Black Barons baseball team, The New York Times reported.
Lincoln was an ordained United Methodist minister, and a friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Alex Haley, and in 1990 was cited by Pope John Paul II for ”scholarly service to the church,” The New York Times reported.
Lincoln was diagnosed with diabetes in 1980 and died on May 14, 2000, at the age of 75 in Durham, North Carolina. His family told The New York Times he had been suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and heart trouble.
After his passing, many spoke his praises.
”He was in the tradition of African-American public intellectuals, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and John Henrik Clarke,” said academic, author, ordained minister Michael Eric Dyson. ”He was able to translate lofty concepts into ideas understandable by the general public.”
Photo: Courtesy C. Eric Lincoln Lecture Series Collection Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, Fair use image
