The Fight is on in Texas: A History of African American Churches of Christ in the Lone Star State, 1865-2000

This groundbreaking work draws upon congregational histories and other primary sources to chronicle for the first time the story of African American Churches of Christ in Texas. Emerging out of the nineteenth-century Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, the African American churches inherited from their white mentors both a Biblicist theology and a feisty spirit. Their “fight” was against religious error and in support of the true church as they understood it. Out of that “fight” emerged a growing network of congregations that by the mid-twentieth century reached throughout Texas. This book lifts out of obscurity the African American Christians who joined Ramsey’s “fight …out West” and who made black Churches of Christ in Texas what they are today.

With generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and as part of the National Endowment of the Humanities Open Book program, the Abilene Christian University's ACU Press and Brown Library partnered with the Disciples of Christ Historical Society (DCHS) to digitize 25 important backlist titles relevant to Stone-Campbell tradition, theology, and church history. This open access version is hosted by Atla Open Press in furtherance of the purposes of the grant.