In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

jones: no people on earth has the beauty of drums and rhythm and dance like the africans, long before all this so-called christian civilization and oh, the synchronization, every step, every movement, the harmony, and the great creative worship that is expressed in african dance and african song, and some of you whites, you danced (stretched for emphasis) (unintelligible word), you look white, but honey, you’re a nigger like father Jim. I know you are. [cheers and applause] jones: (shouts, preacher’s voice) anyone in america who’s poor— white, brown, yellow, or black—and does not admit that he’s a nigger is a damn fool. [cheers and applause] jones: (lowers voice) because nigger means—niggardly means to be treated cheatedly. you’ve been cheated. and we know indians and blacks and poor whites have been cheated, don’t we? —jim jones1 7 Jim Jones and Black Worship Traditions milmon f. harrison Decades after its tragic end, the Peoples Temple movement remains a singular moment in American religious history. But one of the things that still seems to have been overlooked, or forgotten, in our subsequent attempts to make sense of this phenomenon and the events of November 1978 is that its membership was overwhelmingly African American. As Rebecca Moore writes in this volume, 70 percent of the residents of Jonestown were black, while 90 percent of the membership in California may have been African American. These were particularly women, children, and the elderly. While whites, including working-class families who migrated from Indiana to California, and young, middle-class professionals who joined in the Golden State, made up a portion of membership, urban blacks constituted by far the largest group of members. A commonly asked question when considering the numbers of people who were attracted to Jim Jones, the white charismatic leader— an attraction and subsequent relationship that ultimately led many to their deaths—is “what type of person would follow a madman like Jim Jones?” The suggestion is that only a particular personality type, one that is weak or with low self-esteem for example, or the socially, politically, or economically marginalized—the disinherited—would find succor and compensation in a religious movement like Peoples Temple. This chapter approaches the question of Jim Jones’ and the Peoples Temple movement’s appeal, particularly for its African Amer- 124 milmon f. harrison ican members, from a slightly different perspective. It addresses the issue of how certain elements of the traditional black worship style were drawn upon and used by Jones as part of the services in such a way as to make the experience resonate with the large numbers of African Americans who participated in and helped shape them. It also locates the presence and privileged position of those elements of black worship traditions squarely within the context of Jim Jones’ leadership role in the worship setting and his defining and reinforcing the range of acceptable expressive norms.2 JIM JONES’ PERSONAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND The specific details of Jim Jones’ personal and spiritual history have been well documented elsewhere, so I will not reiterate them here.3 However, I do think it important to point out how certain aspects of his life before Peoples Temple may have served to shape his worldview and give him access to culturally specific modes of expression that would later lead him to shape a message that would resonate with his African American audience. First, the early influence of Jim Jones’ mother, Lynetta, on the formation of his overall spiritual outlook and the doctrine he would later develop should not be overlooked. Mrs. Jones was not particularly fond of organized religion—in fact, she was outright derisive of what she termed the “Sky God,” a term Jim later used frequently in his sermons in an equally derisive manner.4 Although she thought many of her devoutly religious HolinessPentecostal neighbors took their beliefs far too seriously—after all, she drank and cursed and habitually committed any number of acts they considered sinful—Mrs. Jones did believe that the world was inhabited and enchanted by numerous types of spirits. She also was a great lover of nature and of animals. Like many during the Great Depression , when Jim was born, the Jones family was poor and dependent upon Lynetta’s income to make ends meet. His father, James Thurman Jones, or Big Jim, had become disabled during World War I. In addition to her views on religion and the...

Share