Sanctuaries of Resistance: The Prophetic Black Church as Fugitive Education

Authors

• Charles E. Becknell Jr., New Mexico State UniversityFollow

Abstract

This paper examines the Prophetic Black Church as a living site of education within the ongoing struggle against historical erasure. It shows how sermons, testimonies, and rituals function as teaching practices that preserve cultural memory and build critical awareness. Using pastoral autoethnography, the study interprets everyday acts of worship and community life as forms of learning that join faith with freedom. Through a narrative case study and theological reflection, the paper highlights how grandmothers, elders, and youth act as “freedom teachers,” sustaining Black learning amid surveillance and exclusion. Drawing on endarkened feminist praxis and fugitive pedagogy, the analysis reimagines the Prophetic Black Church as both archive and classroom. This study contributes to ongoing efforts to recover Black education histories and invites educators, faith leaders, and community organizers to see these sacred practices as models of justice-centered teaching and collective remembrance.

Author Biography

Dr. Charles E. Becknell, Jr. is an assistant professor and program coordinator of Africana Studies in the College of Health, Education, and Social Transformation at New Mexico State University. Writing at the intersection of Africana thought and the Black Pastor-Scholar tradition, his work treats the Black Church as a site of prophetic resistance and fugitive knowledgemaking. He is developing Deep Witness, a framework treating memory, ritual, and story as living archives. He also serves as a pastoral leader rooted in community.

Recommended Citation

Becknell, C. E. (2026). Sanctuaries of resistance: The prophetic Black church as fugitive education. Occasional Paper Series, (56), 15-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1602