PITTSBURGH SEMINARY ETHICS PROFESSOR’S NEW BOOK ABOUT WOMEN IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The Rev. Dr. AnneMarie Mingo, associate professor of ethics, culture, and moral leadership and director of the Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has written a new book titled, Have You Got Good Religion? Black Women's Faith, Courage, and Moral Leadership in the Civil Rights Movement (University of Illinois Press, 2024).
The book, Dr. Mingo’s first, explores how many Black churchwomen who took part in civil rights protests drew on faith, courage, and moral imagination while risking their lives to change deeply rooted systems of injustice, even if they might not directly benefit from the changes. Dr. Mingo brings these often ignored witnesses into the historical narrative to explore the moral and ethical world of a generation of Black churchwomen and the extraordinary liberation theology that guided them. Their personal accounts of a lived religion enacted in the world provide powerful insights into how faith steels human beings to face threats, jail, violence, and seemingly implacable hatred. Throughout, Dr. Mingo draws on their experiences to construct an ethical model meant to guide contemporary activists in the ongoing pursuit of justice.
Dr. Mingo said: “Have You Got Good Religion? asks a question of all of us regarding how our understanding of God pushes us to act in ways that lead to the greatest good for humanity. The stories of ‘everyday’ women that I feature from the historic Civil Rights Movement and contemporary Movement for Black Lives can inspire all of us to make choices to think beyond ourselves and challenge injustices in ways that make a difference.”
Dr. Mingo’s research interests include 20th and 21st century social activism and civil and human rights struggles, historic and contemporary African American religious experiences, womanist theology and ethics, and liberation theology and ethics. She has written articles for many publications, serves on the board of directors for the Society Christian Ethics, is a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion and of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and serves on the AAR steering committee for Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society.
Dr. Mingo earned her bachelor’s from Florida A&M University; M.B.A. from Rollins College; M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary; and Ph.D. from Emory University. Prior to her arrival at Pittsburgh Seminary in 2022, Dr. Mingo was an assistant professor of African American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and an affiliate faculty member in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University. She is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Dr. Mingo is excited to share these stories of everyday women who chose to use their lives to make a difference in our world. To schedule a book event, e-mail .