• DOI:10.1086/217872
• Corpus ID: 144039917

The Voodoo Cult Among Negro Migrants in Detroit

@article{Beynon1938TheVC,
  title={The Voodoo Cult Among Negro Migrants in Detroit},
  author={Erdmann Doane Beynon},
  journal={American Journal of Sociology},
  year={1938},
  volume={43},
  pages={894 - 907}
}

• E. D. Beynon
• Published 1 May 1938
• History
• American Journal of Sociology

The "Nation of Islam," Usually known as the "Voodoo Cult," belongs to a chain of movements arising out of the growing disillusionment and race consciousness of recent Negro migrants to northern industrial cities. The attention of the general public has been directed to sensational episodes in the history of this cult, such as the occurrence of human sacrifice, but the reorientation of the personality of its members has been ignored. The members of the cult have been isolated from the social organization of the community in which they lived, but they have maintained their functional relationship in the metropolitan economy from which they derive their means of livelihood and in which they have been able to make more satisfactory adjustments. As a result of the teaching of this cult, they have gained a new conception of themselves and regard themselves as superior, rather than inferior, to other people.