meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
FiveThirtyEight Politics

How The Black Church Has Shaped American Politics

FiveThirtyEight Politics

ABC News

Politics, News

4.620.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This installment of the podcast explores the role that the Black church plays in American politics, through initiatives like "souls to the polls" and beyond. Joining the podcast are Andra Gillespie, political science professor at Emory University, Besheer Mohamed, senior researcher at Pew Research Center, and Stacey Holman, the director of PBS’s recent documentary series “The Black Church." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast.

0:10.8

I'm Gaelin Drouk and today we're going to take a look at the role that the Black

0:14.7

Church plays in American politics.

0:17.3

On Monday, Georgia Republicans passed a package of voting laws that include limiting

0:21.5

Sunday voting to one Sunday during the state's three weeks of early voting.

0:26.6

As we discussed on last week's podcast, that's notable because it could limit souls to

0:30.7

the polls' initiatives that encourage Black Americans to vote in conjunction with church

0:35.2

attendance.

0:36.4

About 30% of Georgia voters are Black, but in 2020, they made up about 37% of Sunday

0:42.6

votes, that's according to data from Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Stacey Abrams.

0:47.9

But the Black Church plays a much bigger role in American politics than just souls to the

0:52.2

polls.

0:53.2

And I've invited on some experts to help us understand its history and the role that

0:57.5

it plays today in our politics.

0:59.6

So here with me to talk about it all is political science professor at Emory University,

1:04.9

Andre Gillespie.

1:06.0

Her research focuses on race and politics in the United States.

1:08.9

Hello, welcome to the show.

1:10.3

Thank you for having me.

1:11.8

Also here with us is senior researcher at Pew Research Center, Bashir, Muhammad.

1:16.7

Pew recently published a large-scale study looking at faith amongst Black Americans, which

1:21.1

he co-authored, welcome to share.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ABC News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ABC News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.