Peoples Temple and Black religion in America

By Anthony B. Pinn, Rebecca Moore

Subjects: History, Jonestown Mass Suicide, Jonestown, Guyana, 1978, African American churches, African Americans, Religion, Peoples Temple

Description: The Peoples Temple movement ended on November 18, 1978 in their utopianist community of Jonestown, Guyana, when more than 900 members died, most of whom took their own lives. Only a handful lived to tell their story. Little has been written about the Peoples Temple in the context of black religion in America. Twenty-five years after the tragedy of Jonestown, scholars from various disciplines assess the impact of the Peoples Temple on the black religious experience.