Book Review

Lawrence A. Q. Burnley. The Cost of Unity: African-American Agency andEducation and the Christian Church, 1865–1914. Macon, GA: MercerUniversity Press, 2008. 307 pp. Hardback $45.00.

The history of African Americans’ quest for freedom is inextricablylinked to the black church and black education. Contributing to ourunderstanding of these interwoven relationships is Lawrence Burnley’sThe Cost of Unity. Burnley tells of how African Americans affiliated withthe Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) fought for autonomy overtheir educational and religious institutions. His study also explores howthe black members of the Disciples of Christ struggled for autonomyand help foster the ‘‘Great Fear’’ among white members that blackmembers would become literate.

Burnley’s primary purpose is to ‘‘examine the agency of AfricanAmericans in the founding of educational institutions for blacksassociated with the Christian Church. The philosophical discoursewithin the Christian Church concerning the purpose, type, andcontrol of these schools is examined, as well as the racial assumptionsand attitudes that informed each of these areas’’ (p. 7). The author’scentral argument is that the ‘‘Great Fear’’ led to massive resistance bywhites as they witnessed African-American church members seekingeducation and control over their institutions. Further, the author assertsthat white members of the Disciples of Christ masked behind ‘‘churchunity’’ in order to continue the status quo that relegated blacks tounequal educational opportunities. Burnley illustrates, similar to otherworks on black churches and black education, how the Disciples ofChrist believed that whites were ordained for a classical type ofeducation whereas blacks were destined for an industrial educationcurriculum that would perpetuate their subordinate positions. AfricanAmericans had very little autonomy in the Christian Church, whichlimited the control over the type of schooling offered to their children.

Burnley draws upon social history, relying heavily on churchminutes, memoirs, journals, and seminal works on the Christianchurch, the black church, and black education to revisit how AfricanAmericans in the Christian Church established their own educationalinstitutions, thus capturing the collective voices of those who have beenignored for nearly a century. The first four chapters primarily examinethe sociopolitical and socioeconomic conditions of America from 1865to 1914, and the imprint those conditions had on education, particularlythe education offered by the Disciples of Christ. A detailed analysis onthe Stone-Campbell Movement depicts the history of the Christian

History of Education Quarterly Vol. 50 No. 3 August 2010 Copyright r 2010 by the History of Education Society

Church and how the church’s creed ‘‘unite at all cost’’ created uniquechallenges for African Americans. The Christian Church oftenremained neutral on critical issues, such as slavery and equality, inorder to prevent disharmony between the regions. Burnley explains howthe Disciples of Christ’s ‘‘neutral stance’’ conveyed to its African-American members that unity, not equality, was the Disciples’ primarymission.

Burnley makes three points in the first four chapters that are criticalto understanding how African Americans would subsequently acquireeducation within the Christian Church and how the cost of unity stifledblack progress. First, Burnley states that education ‘‘was clearly apolitical tool to solidify the republic and to inculcate particular valuesand beliefs.’’ He continues, ‘‘Protestant republican ideology is racist,patriarchal, and xenophobic,’’ and this ideology influenced educationalreform in America (p. 32). Second, churches, specifically the Disciples ofChrist, played a pivotal role in the type of education accessible to AfricanAmericans in the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth century. Burnley’swork exemplifies how the Disciples were careful in maintaining thesocial order by reinforcing the belief that God intended for Anglo-SaxonProtestant males to be leaders and others followers. Even thoughBurnley credits the Christian Church for being somewhat progressivein believing that African Americans needed some form of educationalinstruction, the Church’s educational philosophy was never aboutegalitarianism.

Burnley’s third notable point is that constant contradictions existedin the Christian Church. One of the contradictions is exemplified by thefact that the founders were slave owners, while requesting unity amongtheir members without addressing how the sure nature of slaverydisrupted church unity because, according to Burnley, ‘‘Christianunity encompasses racial equality.’’ Therefore, the author explainshow the Disciples’ quest for unity is a contradiction because unity andequality are interconnected. Another contradiction was the failure of theDisciples to provide adequate support for black educational institutionsand constantly relegated black members to industrial education.

After providing the necessary context in the beginning chapters,Burnley then primarily focuses on the schooling that was available toAfrican Americans and the organizations that provided educationalassistance (e.g., Christian Women’s Board of Missions and Board ofNegro Education and Evangelism). He also details the presence ofAfrican Americans in the Christian Church. Additionally, Burnleyexplores the agency of African Americans and how they establishedtheir own schools. Burnley concludes with two chapters that examineshow race relations have evolved within the Christian Church and blackleaders’ response to these changes.

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Perhaps most intriguing in these last chapters are Burnley’spersuasive arguments about why African Americans should be addedto the historiography of the Disciples of Christ. Historians such as JamesAnderson and Heather Williams have written about racial assumptionsin reference to black education during the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth century; however, Burnley’s work shows how black agency andblack education looked within the Christian Church, despite thechurch’s refusal to ‘‘racially disrupt the structure of power relationsand distribution of resources’’ (p. 266). In so doing, he challenges theaccepted belief that blacks did not have a significant presence in theChristian Church.

Although a thoroughly researched text, I would have liked tohave seen examples of African Americans establishing educationalinstitutions in the Christian Church earlier in the text. In essence, thefirst six chapters, though useful information, are all context, and the cruxof the author’s argument does not appear until chapter seven. This booktoo often reads as the history of African Americans’ presence in theChristian Church instead of how they used their agency to establisheducational institutions. Only chapter seven focuses on educationalinstitutions, such as the Jarvis Christian Institute (JCI) and TennesseeManual Labor University (TMLU), which blacks founded for thepurpose of educating ‘‘their children.’’ Including more informationabout JCI or TMLU would have strengthened the author’s argument,especially as it relates to black agency and education. Overall, Burnley’swork is a necessary addition for anyone interested in studying African-American agency and education in the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth century. Also, Disciples of Christ historians can benefitfrom the work of Burnley because he shows how the church’s belief inunity at all cost negatively affected their African-American members.Further, The Cost of Unity expands the larger educational historynarrative concerning blacks’ desire for education and autonomy post-Civil War.

VINCENT WILLISEMORY UNIVERSITY

Book Review 395