252. Fauset, Arthur Huff. Black Gods of the Metropolis. Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. First published 1941.
Fauset notes the likely but unprovable persistence of African beliefs and practices, and Frazier's (and others') view that all such influence must have been overwhelmed by white culture. All American black religion depended on Methodism and Baptism as points of departure; religious instruction was universal by "the nineteenth century." There has been little or no history of schisms and dogmatic dispute; such difficulties as there were involved whites and blacks in white churches. Since black churches were often banned as potential sites for rebellion separatism resulted, except among Catholics (but the African Orthodox Church is an exception). The hypocrisy of white churches helped.
Fauset gives more or less detailed descriptions of Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, the United House of Prayer for All People, the Black Jews, the Moorish Science Temple of America, (which predicted a new world order of black rule, though this was not apparently an eschatology) and the Father Divine Peace Mission Movement.
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