Algernon D. Black
From Philosopedia
Black, Algernon D. (1900—1993)
A teacher and the leader emeritus of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, Black at the time of his death was the Society’s foremost elder statesman. A graduate of Ethical Culture schools, Black became the Society leader in 1932 and the senior leader in 1942. When Felix Adler died in 1933, Black was among those who helped translate the movement into programs to meet the crises of the Depression. Under his direction, the Encampment for Citizenship began (1946), and various committees against discrimination in housing, racial discrimination, and violations of civil rights were formed.
He broadcast the Society’s weekly Sunday meetings over radio station WQXR, and his commentaries were broadcast on many other stations. In 1966,
Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed Black to lead a new Civilian Complaint Review Board for the city’s Police Department.
Black, son of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, agreed with Adler that what is needed is a religion based on ethics rather than creed and theology. Like Adler, Wolfgang Saxon has written, Black “saw a pragmatic faith without God, a belief in the infinite worth of the individual, the centrality of ethical principles, and the urgency to redeem the democratic promise by improving the lot of the poor and fighting privilege.”
According to James F. Hornback, Black although a humanist declined to sign Humanist Manifesto II “out of loyalty to the larger inclusiveness of Ethical Culture.”
In addition to writing many addresses, Black wrote Our Godless Age (1943) and The People and the Police: The Story of the Civilian Review Board (1986). He was a contributing editor in 1933 to The Standard.
(See entry for Ethical Culture.)
