Christopher Cameron: Black Freethinkers

Christopher Cameron, who teaches history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has done groundbreaking research showing that there have been many black skeptics, doubters, agnostics and atheists in America since the early years of our country. Cameron is the founder of the African American Intellectual History Society. He’s the author of "To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement" and co-editor of "New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition." Cameron’s newest book, the subject of this week’s talk show, is "Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism." “Encountering blog posts on Hubert Harrison or W.E.B. Du Bois or Zora Neale Hurston — it really opened my eyes,” Cameron tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor about what prompted his research into Black freethought. “And it just got me thinking that there was a lot more here than at least scholars of African-American religion had written about.” Tune in to learn more about some of the leading voices of freethought and the history of Black rejection of religion, including during enslavement. Learn more about the Freedom From Religion Foundation at ffrf.org.