Adams’ monograph places two black Christian women at the center of religion and politics in Summit, New Jersey. Through the stories of Violet Johnson and Florence Spearing Randolph, Adams describes a white suburban community in terms of race and gender activism. Ordinary black women not only were leaders in their faith communities, but they also played a significant role in American religion and suburbanization.
Johnson and Randolph initially galvanized support for missionary and temperance work, aiming for small improvements in their community. They shifted their focus toward suffrage, which black women significantly aided, endorsing politicians whose policies would promote civic righteousness and urging Christians to understand voting as a spiritual practice. Rising religious and social conservativism in addition to the Great Depression exacerbated racial tensions, resulting in white marginalization of black citizens, and black men’s marginalization of black women. Though Jim Crow settled into the North, Adams argues that Johnson...