For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864-1905.

For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864-1905. By Canter Brown Jr. and Larry Eugene Rivers. Foreword by Stephen W. Angell and Anthony B. Pinn. The History of African-American Religions. Gainesville and other cities: University Press of Florida, 2004. Pp. xvi, 252. $34.95, ISBN 0-8130-2778-0.)

Larry Eugene Rivers and Canter Brown Jr. offer us an outstanding history of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church in Florida during its formative years (1864 to 1905). This book breaks new ground as the first state study of the Zion church. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of African American religious history as well as to specialists of southern and Florida history. It is also the companion volume to Rivers and Brown's earlier tome that dealt with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Florida.

The AMEZ Church originated in 1796 in New York and went on to become one of the oldest and most prominent black religious institutions in American history. This denomination set up operations in Florida one year before its competitor, the AME Church, and went on to center itself primarily in the urban areas of Key West, Tampa, and Pensacola. Furthermore, it drew its primary membership from the black middle class. Zionites focused less on providing black political leadership and more on addressing community issues such as schools, social services, temperance, and the like. Needless to say, its spiritual resources aided Florida's African American community during decades of struggle against the South's racial caste system and all its harsh proscriptions.

Of particular interest in this study is the intersection of gender with the black church and black patriarchy. AMEZ women are moved front and center by Rivers and Brown. Indeed, this black denomination was one of the first mainline churches to ordain women to full clerical status. Although the authors could have offered us more analysis of the gender issue in African American religious history, they do provide an abundant narrative on this topic for other scholars to explore in future studies. They also skillfully investigate the specific problems faced by the AMEZ church as it dealt with internal leadership disputes between various ministers and conflicts between local congregations and higher denominational authorities.

The authors relate the history of Florida's AMEZ Church to a broader context of southern and Florida history. For example, they discuss how Zion history was influenced by regional industrial growth, Florida's racial politics, economic depressions, yellow fever, citrus crop freezes, hurricanes, and railroad development. They also deal with the class issue as a major factor in Zion church history. There were indeed class differences within the church that created uneasy feelings and a state of wariness, which no doubt impeded growth and development.

The amount of careful research in primary sources and the quantity of information in this book is impressive. Useful appendixes are provided on AMEZ chronology in Florida and on churches and ministerial assignments. More importantly, Rivers and Brown draw on the best recent scholarly literature, including the work of William E. Montgomery, Paul Harvey, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Unfortunately, they do not add significant new theoretical insights. Nonetheless, the authors provide a valuable book and make an important contribution to the historical understanding of African American religion in the South and Florida. It is certainly the most thorough examination of the AMEZ experience in Florida.

WALTER T. HOWARD

Bloomsburg University