Encyclopedia of African American History

200  Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Present

Full Immersion Baptism

Full immersion baptism is an initiation rite into the Chris-

tian church. Th eologians have hypothesized that immersion

baptism is a derivative of Jewish ritual washings, whereby

the participant bathed in collected rainwater to perform

personal ritual purifi cation. Th e signifi cance of this is that

the tub contained fl owing water that possessed qualities that

sustain life. Likewise, for enslaved Africans, theologians

have theorized that immersion baptism could have evinced

distinctive memories of God and the signifi cance and sa-

credness of water to them. Hence, many African Americans

joined denominations such as the Methodists and Baptists

that practiced baptism in this manner. Because Jesus him-

self modeled this mode of baptism, Christians practice full

immersion baptism as a means of identifying with the life,

death, and resurrection of Christ. Black liberation theolo-

gians have concluded that because Jesus identifi ed with the

poor and oppressed, and African Americans have histori-

cally been disenfranchised and oppressed, immersion bap-

tism not only symbolizes freedom and purifi cation from

sin but also signifi es one’s affi rmation of his or her human

worth, dignity, and willingness to submerge oneself in the

black church’s commitment to continuing Christ’s mission

of liberation from an unjust and immoral world, in addi-

tion to affi rming an anticipation of future redemption by

Christ. Consequently, participants in this mode of baptism

are usually young adults or adults who have the capacity to

consent to the decrees and mandates of the church.

See also: Slave Culture; Slave Religion

Pearl Bates

Bibliography

Costen, Melva Wilson. African American Christian Worship. Nash-

ville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993.

Evans, James H. We Have Been Believers. Minneapolis, MN: Augs-

burg Fortress, 1992.

White, James F. Introduction to Christian Worship. Nashville, TN:

Abingdon Press, 2000.

Goofer Dust

Goofer dust, also known as grave dirt, is earth taken from

graves for use by practitioners of the African American

“catastrophist school,” Frazier argued that slavery had eff ec-
tively destroyed the black family, and this reality facilitated
the “Americanization” of slaves and the complete annihi-
lation of African culture in the United States. Even aft er
the publication of Herskovits’ monumental Th e Myth of the
Negro Past two years later, Frazier refused to waiver in his
contention that African culture had largely disappeared in
North America.
In a 1949 work titled Th e Negro in the United States,
Frazier dedicated the fi rst chapter to attacking Herskovits’s
thesis that the African contributions to African American
culture were substantial. Although Frazier, for the fi rst
time, acknowledged the presence of certain Africanisms,
he also contended that the signifi cance of African heritage
had been diminished by conditions in American society.
It is important to note that Frazier was likely respond-
ing to the social environment around him more than to
the particulars of his ongoing debate with Herskovits. He
was born in the midst of the black nadir, when African
Americans had to face the brutal combination of legally
sanctioned segregation, political disenfranchisement, un-
precedented levels of racial violence, and an anti-black
propaganda campaign in the media. In this hostile climate,
any claims that African Americans were somehow diff er-
ent from whites would further justify their debased treat-
ment. Even as late as the 1960s, in Th e Negro Church in
America, published posthumously in 1963, Frazier would
continue the Africanisms debate. Although he made im-
portant contributions in a number of areas, it is now clear
that Frazier was wrong when he claimed that enslaved Af-
ricans in North America were completely stripped of their
cultural heritage.
See also: Africanisms; Family Patterns; Herskovits, Melville;
Turner, Lorenzo Dow

Walter C. Rucker

Bibliography
Edwards, G. Franklin, ed. E. Franklin Frazier on Race Rela-
tions: Selected Papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1968.
Frazier, E. Franklin. Th e Negro Church in America. New York:
Schocken Books, 1963.
Frazier, E. Franklin. Th e Negro Family in the United States. Chi-
cago: University of Chicago Press, 1939.
Frazier, E. Franklin. Th e Negro in the United States. New York:
Macmillan, 1949.
Herskovits, Melville. Th e Myth of the Negro Past. 1942. Reprint,
Boston: Beacon Press, 1958.

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