JANUARY 6 -12,1986 THE CITIZEN
G
These are excerpts from TM Nqro '$ Church by Ben­
jamin E. Mays and Joseph W. Nicholson. The publica­
tion of this book was sponsored by the Insititute 0/
SocioJ and ReligIOUS Research, an independent agency
organized in 1921 to apply scientific method to the
study 0/ social and religious subjects.
R . wi Environnrmt /1IClWSG
'uItIMr 0/ qro Churches
Freedom in church activities won by the egro prior
to and immediately following emancipation has per-
. ed through the years. And the proscriptions hamper­
ing him in respect to his social, economic and civic life,
due to slavery, ere no removed when Lincoln signed
the emancipation proclamation in 1863. It as in reac­
tion against these aippling restrictions that the freedom
allo ed in the church assumed larger importance and
accounted in good part for the continuous development
of the egro church; especially with respect to
numbers, both in the rural and the city areas. This
freedom in the church opened the y in later times
toward freedom in other fields; but still the egro is
freer in the church than he is in other areas of the
American life. Through the years, be has received more
encouragement from the ruling bite majority' in
church orpnizarion and church building than he has
received in oth community or group enterprises.
Church' Afro-Am rican Life
erroa R«Gv� Sp«iDJ Encouragement
For the most part, th idea of a separate church has
been satisfactory to white Americans and pleasing to a
goodly number of egroes. The encouragement that
egroes have received from white people to have their
own churches has served to increase the number of
egro churches. The whites have stimulated egroes to
build or purchase their own churches by direct acts of
discrimination against them; by financially aiding them
to purchase or build. churches or to stan new work; by
separating the egroes under white supervision; by giv­
ing church buildings to egroes or encouraging them to
remain at old sites when the whites moved or built new
churches; by willingly granting the request when
egroes desired their own church; or by friendly
counsel and advice.
Examples of. these types of encouragement are vividly
reflected in the chaeter on origins. Even esro chur­
ches that are organizationally a pait of white denomina­
tions are separately set off; and possibly the greatest
systematic financial aid that egro churches receive
from white peop e comes from those denominational
bodies that are organically and theoretically on body,
embracing both whites and egroes, but in practice
separate and distinct. For the whites, who desire the
separate 0 church, it solves a complex social prob­
lem; for the Negroes, ho are p eased with the separate
Being a father is a lot mont than iust making a baby.
And if you rea Iy want 10 know how a real man handles
and dec with being a , call or stop � your local
Urban office.
5
Church
church, it furnishes an opportuniry for self-expression
and leadership usually denied in the white church.
The egro has also been encouraged by white peo­
ple, especially in the rural South and in small southern
towns and cities, by being "let alone" provided no mili­
tant doctrine was preached and the egro's religious
emphasis was other-worldly. What the white people did
not object to or prohibit in the egro's church life e
interpreted to mean sanction or approval.
o many years ago the militant egro preachers in
a certain section of South Carolina were silenced by
threats of violence, and in some cases actually run out
of the county, because their messages were not con-
. dered the kind that would keep egroes in their
"places"; but those who preached about heaven who
told egroes to be honest and obedient, and that by
and by God would straighten things out, were helped
financially in church projects. They were held up to
other egroes as embodiments of the virtues of true
egro leadership. Such egroes could usually get a lit­
tle fmancial aid to build new churches and renovate old
ones, and they were sometimes encouraged by the
whites in their efforts to split the church.
To be sure, it was not always financial aid in the
bulding of churches or the renovation of old ones that
the "safe, sane" minister received, but personal gifts
such as clothes, money and public acclamation on the
pan of leading whites. In this study, cases were, found
where the site for the egro church was given by the
. white landowners. Economically, 1i was profitable to
the landowners to keep egroes satisfied and have them
honest. The egro preacher and the egro church were
instruments to this end. And the methods most often
employed were to boost and encourage the egro
preacher who taught the egro the "right" doctrine,
and to allow the egro religious freedom in his church.
In any tense situation, these egro preachers could be
relied upon to convey to their egro congregations the
advice of the leading whites of the community. Ex­
amples of this kind could be multiplied indefinitely.
SPRI G
STREET
912 Sprin Street
Phone: 728-0177
Rev. T.J.ROBER 0 T
1 :30. . . . . . .. unday School
11 a.m Morning Worship
6 p.m Evening 'orsbip
QUEE ESTHER
Bapti t Church
2220 uperior tr et
Phone: 739-8 2.5
Phone 722-6765
ROLAND L HO 'ARD r. REV. G. . BE ETT
Pastor SUPT. USKEGON DIST.
)lAROF
BElHLE
SPiRIlUAL
890 BroldwlY
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
Phone: 926-1429
MERCIE JOHNSON
Pastor
10:30 a.m •.•••• Sunday School
11 :30 a.m. ••• ornlnl $ervke
7:30 p.m.' Tuesday •.• Mis on
7:30 p.m •• Thur •• Prophecy Hour
7:30 p.m •• Fri. • • Pastor's ,ht
-
'MOR I G
STAR
Bapti t hurch
2031 RIORD T.
Phone: 726-2 65
Rev. JAME HITE IDE
9:30. . . . . . .. unday coo I
10: 5 . . .. ornin rr'orshrp
7 p. m. . ... Eu ning \f 'orsbip
Mount Zion
Church of God in hri t
188 u keg n A enue
1 . In. . . . . . . . . . . .. lin y S hool
11: 0 am Morrune Wor hi]
6 pm ···· .P.�.\;'
7: pm Everung r ill
n Prayer Tues . Frt
CE TRAL U 'TED
ethodist Church
Church ervice 8: 0 a.m.
.......................... 11 a.rn.
'Church Sch 1 9:30 a.m.