Activism

Womanist Theology: Recognizing Black Women’s Leadership, Contributions to the Black Church

“To do womanist theology, we must read and hear the Bible and engage it within the context of our own experience,” Dr. Jacquelyn Grant said. “This is the only way that it can make sense to people who are oppressed. Black women of the past did not hesitate in doing this and we must do no less…”

Published

4 years ago

March 6, 2022

Oakland Post

Rev. Dr. Martha C Taylor

Part One

By Rev. Dr. Martha C. Taylor

During this Women’s History Month as we review the history of the Black Church we are reminded of the development of Womanist Theology that recognizes the lived experiences and contributions of Black Women.

The white, middle class Feminist Movement did not perceive Black women as their “sisters.” The focus was on their equality to white men in the workplace. They were not concerned with racism and class that impacted Black women.

James Cone, the “father” of Black Theology and renowned professor, critiqued the teachings of theology in seminaries that overlooked the lived experiences of Black people and the Black church.

Drs. Jacquelyn Grant, Katie Cannon and Delores Williams, Ph.D. students of Cone, told him that Black Theology excluded the lived experiences of Black women. Cone later said, “When I read my book today, I am embarrassed by its sexist language and patriarchal perspective. There is not even one reference to a woman in the whole book!”

These women scholars began to develop a theology that considered the lived experiences of Black Women using the oppressors of racism, classism and sexism. Womanist Theology affirms the previously ignored historical contributions of Black women who have been silenced and ignored in other theologies.

In the Fall of 2011, when I was serving as an adjunct professor in the Doctor of Ministry and the Master of Divinity Programs at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, I approached the late Rev. James Noel, PhD, the only African American to head a department, namely Black Church/Africana Religious Studies Certificate Program.

With his support, I gathered a group of Bay Area Black women scholars, professors, and pastors. To our authenticity as Black mothers, grandmothers, other mothers, sisters, and aunties, who lived in the Black Community, we brought our theological education and lived experiences as Black women to the “kitchen table” and brainstormed about how we could bridge the divide between the seminary and our beloved Black community.

We were not naïve that sexism was alive and well in the majority of Black churches. However, not all male pastors practice sexism.

We linked theology, anthropology and sociology in terms that could be understood by non-seminarians. We used the words of Jesus who posed a question to His disciples: “But who do they say I am?” [Matthew 16:15] to brand our symposiums.’

Workshops did not focus on pain and sorrow only. We emphasized the strides of Black women across the board. Congresswoman Barbara Lee was the guest speaker at our first conference.

The Womanist Project was an anchor in the community that shed light on understanding the history of womanist theology including using stories in the Bible and in our everyday lives. The work of the symposium lasted more than five years and was one-of-a-kind in the Bay Area.

There were times that sessions were standing-room-only, and attended by all peoples. Students at the Graduate Theological Union began to write on womanist thought.

The birth of Black churches in the Bay Area would not have emerged if it weren’t for Black women. Black women opened up their homes for prayer meetings, Bible study and more.

For instance, the Market Street Seventh Day Adventist Church in Oakland was founded in 1923 by three pioneering Black women. The same holds true for Oakland’s Bethlehem Lutheran Church, founded in 1929 by three Black women.

Though these women founded churches, they did not lead the church as pastors. Bishop Ernestine Reems opened the Center of Hope Church in 1968 in Oakland. I dare say there would not be a single Black church in the Bay Area or otherwise if it were not for the women.

Rev. Dr. Martha C. Taylor, is a long-time member of Allen Temple Baptist Church and serves as the historian/archivist. She is the past historian/archivist for the Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc, Washington, D.C. She authored a first-of-its-kind epic history book “From Labor to Reward, Black Church Beginnings in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond 1849-1972.”

A former adjunct professor at the San Francisco Theological Seminary she continues as an advisor to students writing their doctoral dissertations. Dr. Taylor is dually ordained Baptist and Presbyterian and served as “installed” pastor at Elmhurst Presbyterian Church and pulpit supply for the Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Council Approves Plan to Hire Staff for Fisher’s Howard Terminal Project

Don't Miss

Surge in Virus Deaths Reinforces Need for Recovery Treatment

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 8 – 14, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 8 – 14, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 12, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

1 week ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org