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<h1><center>The Church and the Negro Spirit</h1></center>
<h2><center>By GEORGE E. HAYNES</h2></center>
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<p>The last Sunday of September, 1924, was a dramatic day in Harlem.
The Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, a congregation of Negroes, took
possession of the church building, parish house and parsonage of the
Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, a body of white communicants.
The white congregation had assembled in large numbers for the last
service they were to hold in their accustomed place of worship. Just a
few blocks away there was an unusual attendance of the Negro
congregation at the building two converted apartment houses with the
partition walls removed they had used for fourteen years, beginning
with the days when the church was a mission. At a designated hour, the
Negro congregation marched quietly and in an orderly manner out of
their old structure and up Seventh Avenue toward the Metropolitan
Methodist Episcopal church house. The doors of the Metropolitan Church
opened wide; the white pastor and his people arose to receive the
Negro pastor and his people. There were Negro and white visitors from
their common denomination to witness and participate in this historic
event. The Negro pastor and the president of his board of trustees
were welcomed to the pulpit by the white pastor and the president of
his board. After appropriate songs and addresses, the keys of the
church property were presented by the white trustees of the outgoing
congregation to the Negro trustees of the incoming congregation. The
benediction was pronounced amid expressions of joy and fellowship not
unmixed with tears.
<p>The taking over of church property by Negroes is a frequent
occurrence in Harlem, as it is in the other rapidly growing Negro
centers in the cities of the North. About eight years ago the
Metropolitan Baptist Church bought from a white congregation an
imposing stone building at Seventh Avenue and 125th Street and moved
into it. Three years ago the Williams Institutional Church of the
Colored Methodist Episcopal denomination purchased an excellent
plantÑonce a flourishing Jewish synagogueÑin 130th Street.
<p>Such a transfer of white church property not infrequently
accompanies a shifting of population. Within the past three years the
Negro population of Harlem has pushed forward as the white population
has moved westward across Eighth Avenue to St. Nicholas Park and up
beyond 145th Street almost to the boundary of the Polo Grounds, and
south of 125th Street, between Eighth and Lenox Avenues. During that
time the fine building of a Swedish congregation west of Eighth Avenue
has been taken over by a body of Negro Congregationalists, the Grace
Congregational Church of Harlem. The imposing structure of a Lutheran
Church at Edgecombe Avenue and 140th Street has been bought and
occupied by the Calvary Independent Methodist Church. According to a
recent announcement, the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, one of the oldest
and largest Negro congregations in the city, after worshipping for
many years in a church house in 53rd Street, has purchased for
$450,000 the beautiful Adventist Temple, built of white Indiana
limestone, at 120th Street.
<p>Quite as interesting as these acquisitions of existing edifices has
been the success of Negro congregations in erecting new church
structures in the face of the high cost of land and building
construction in Manhattan. About fifteen years ago St. Philip's
Protestant Episcopal Church sold its property in the Pennsylvania
Station zone for a large sum and used a part of the proceeds to erect,
under the supervision of a Negro architect, an attractive and very
serviceable brick church building and parish house on lots extending
from 133rd to 134th Streets. The Abyssinian Baptist Church sold its
property in 40th Street and built, on 138th Street, a church building
and community house at a cost of about $325,000. In plan and program,
like many of the churches named here it is a thing of beauty and an
instrument of service. "Mother Zion" Church, of the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion connection, found about twenty years ago that its
constituency was becoming too far removed from its location in
Bleecker Street. A fine structure therefore was erected in 86th
Street where its leaders thought a Negro neighborhood would develop,
but the subway opened up and carried Negroes farther north. About
twelve years ago "Mother Zion" moved again and erected a building in
136th Street. To accommodate its growing institutional activities a
new addition to the structure is now completed on a plot which runs
through to 137th Street. In a triangle near 138th Street, St. Mark's
Methodist Episcopal Church, now in the mid-town district, is erecting
an institutional structure to cost a half million dollars.
<p>In the purchase of buildings from white congregations and in the
erection of new structures, the development in Negro church eguipment
in New York is typical of what has happened on smaller scale in such
cities as Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis. Also in a few
smaller cities churches have made commendable efforts to meet the
growing demands of these people. In Saint Louis during the observance
of Race Relations Sinday this winter delegations from white
congregations that had sold their structures to Negro congregations
returned for services on that day to their former churches to worship
with the present occupants. St. John's Congregational Church in
Springfield, Mass., Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of
Chicago, the Sharp Street Methodist Church of Baltimore, Olivet
Baptist Church in Chicago, "the largest Protestant church in the
world," with nearly 11,000 members, and the Second Baptist Church of
Detroit are outstanding examples of a broad and vigorous institutional
service.
<p>THE Negro church is at once the most resourceful and the most
characteristic organized force in the life of the Negroes of the
Northern cities as it was in the Southern communities from which they
come. Some of its main problems may be summarized in a four-fold
statement:
<ol>
<li>To provide adequate buildings and other physical equipment for
attracting and serving the rapidly increasing popula tions.
<li>To give fellowship to newcomers who have been connected with the
church of the same faith and order in their former homes.
<li>To have adequate personnel and organization for rendering social
service in the housing, health, recreational and other needs of a
large proportion of the masses in the community.
<li>To meet with understanding and wisdom the increasing throng of
intelligent people, who know little of serfdom and who feel the urge
of their vigorous years in the turmoil of the city.
</ol>
<p>We have spoken of typical solutions of the first of these; let us
now consider the others.
<p>So recently have men of all races come to dwell in cities that
their churches often have the organization and equipmene typical of
the small town and rural district. This is especially the case with
the Negro church because only in the past sixty years have its
constituents been moving with the population stream from the rural
districts to urban centers. Only within the last twenty years have the
numbers assumed large proportions in most of the communities that have
grown up around the industrial plants of the Northern cities. As
Negroes moved North they have brought their church with them.
Individuals and group mainly of Baptists and Methodists, have
transferred thei relationships from the littte churches of their
Southern corn munities to the "watch-care" or to full membership o
churches of the "same faith and order" in Northern com munities. In a
few cases whole congregations from South ern communities have moved
North together and brough their pastors with them. In other cases
Negro churches i; Northern cities, which before the heavy migration of
th last ten years had small struggling congregations, have in creased
their membership to large numbers and have becom powerful in
resources. Many of them have able min isters who, like the physicians,
lawyers, editors, and bus ness men who followed in the wake of the
age-earner have come from the South to answer the Northern call.
<p>Back in the Southern communities the little rural churcl
conspicuous for its bell tower, rests among the trees besid the road.
It is the natural meeting place of the people once or twice a month
when the non-resident minister comes to preach, and when the weather
does not make the roads unfit for travel. Often the people come as
far as ten or fifteen miles. Frequently they bring baskets of food and
remain all day. Between the enthusiastic and extended services and
amid the social amenities of meal time, they exchange the gossip of
the countryside, the wisdom and experience of the cropping season, and
the prospects, hopes and fears of the future.
<p>In the typical Southern town or small city one or two churches of
each of the more popular denominations, particularly of Baptists and
the four principal Methodist denominations, have a resident minister.
The church building is better built than those of the churches in the
open country and the services are held usually every Sunday with
Sunday School for the children. The church enters considerably too,
into the leisure time and recreational life of the people by an
occasional sociable or picnic, stereopticon exhibition and, on rare
occasions, a traveling moving picture show. Around the church revolve
the interests of family life The churches in the larger cities such as
Atlanta, Memphis, Louisville or Richmond, in architectural design,
physical facilities, and personnel compare reasonably with other
favorable phases of Negro life. In Norfolk one of the leading Baptist
churches, under the guidance of a young college-trained man, has a
community program including extension classes for boys and girls, day
nursery, playground and other social features.
<p>From these communities of the SouthÑrural districts towns and
citiesÑ thousands of Negroes have moved to Northern cities. With the
rapid increase of colored populations in the Northern cities, church
facilities have not been adequate either in seating space for the
assembly of worshippers, in arrangements for religious education,
still in its infancy among white groups, or in sufficient personnel to
give the service of social ministry to the thousands that come. For
example, in 1920 the estimated seating capacity of Negro churches in
Greater New York was about 24,000. In 1924 with the increase that has
been made by taking over additional churches from white congregations
and the erection of commodious buildings, the estimated seating
capacity of twenty-seven Negro churches and sixteen missions in Harlem
alone is about 21,000. There are thirteen churches with estimated
seating capacity from 500 to 2,500 each; the others range from 200 to
400.
<p>The thirst of the people for the cooling water brooks of religion
is shown in the way they crowd the buildings that are available.
Examples are many. The seats of the large auditorium of the Abyssinian
Baptist Church are filled when the hour of service arrives and often
standing room is at a premium. St. Philip's Protestant Episcopal
Church with a service of high church type, is often crowded to the
doors on Sunday morning. Mother Zion African Methodist Episcopal
Church and Metropolitan Baptist Church often have larger numbers than
they can comfortably seat. Frequently some of these churches have
overflow services.
<p>Besides the large self-supporting congregations with well-appointed
buildings, there are nearly a score of "house-front" and "mission"
churches. The "mission" churches are those that receive a part of
their support from denominational missionary or extension societies
which are stirred to action by the teeming unchurched masses of the
district. These societies subsidize salaries of ministers, assist in
the purchase of buildings or in other ways help to extend their
denominational effort to evangelize and serve the people of this
region. The "house-front" churches are started usually when some
individual who has felt the call to the ministry has gathered about
himself a little flock, or when several persons join together and ask
a minister to lead them. The purchase of an equity in a private house
is usually made. The double parlors on the first floor are used for
church purposes while the upper floors serve as a residence for the
minister or for other tenants.
<p>THE organization, support and operation of Negro churches have
become increasingly independent of white people. Negroes have thus had
valuable experience and group training in standing upon their own legs
and in going forward to achieve ends mapped out by themselves. The
Negro churches are almost exclusively racial both in their membership
and in their administration. Even congregations that belong to
denominations made up of a majority of white communicants, such as the
Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal and the Congregational
Churches, are for all practical purposes autonomous, exercising great
independence in government and being controlled only to a nominal
extent by the general organization.
<p>In no place, perhaps, is the independent, voluntary character of
the Negro church better illustrated than in Harlem. One of the
strongest Baptist churches in this area has been developed during the
past fifteen years under the guidance of a minister of striking power,
who once remarked that "a leader is a fellow who has some followers."
In about ten years his preaching and work have enlarged a handful of
members into a host. With money largely raised by themselves, they
moved from a dingy brick basement to one of Harlem's best stone church
edifices. St. Philip's Protestant Episcopal Church is widely known for
its financial resources it purchased, more than ten years ago, a
number of apartment houses in 135th Street. Three of these churches
have parish houses, three others have institutional equipment, and two
others that are soon to come into the district have announced their
plans for developing vork along these lines.
<p>With the growth of numbers there has been concentratioÈ of Negro
communicants in distinctly Negro congregations, and the denominations
made up altogether of members of the race have shown especially
the vigor and power of numbers. In the independent Negro
denominations there are more than 35,000 churches with over four
million members enrolled and churhc property valued at over seventy
million dollars. In the mixed religious bodies there are over 6,000
Negro churches, nearly three quater million Negro members enrolled and
over seventeen millions in church property. <a href="#note>*</a>
<p>There is a strong racial tie between Negro churches, both of
the independent group and of mixed denominations. Recently
churches of the several denominations of Harlem joined forces
in a league, affiliated with the New York Church Federation
and employed an executive secretary. Denominational
differences are no problem with these churches as there are
frequent visits of delegations from one congregation to
another and frequent ministerial fellowship and exchange of
pulpits.
<p>The Negro ministry has been making gradual gains in
intelligence and social vision. The facilities for training of
Negro religious leaders, however, are not commensurate with
the provision for training in other lines. A recent survey of
theological education showed how inadequate are the
curriculum and the personnel of institutions for theological
training of Negro youth. In New York, of course, all avenues of
religious and theological education are open to Negro leaders,
but most of the ministers lived during their years of training in
sections where such facilities were not open to them. Negroes
trained in social work have been on the scene in small numbers
the past twelve or fifteen years, but social plans and programs
are yet uncertain and have not fully engaged the churches.
The Negro churches of Harlem, however, are developing along
these lines. Six churches have trained staff assistants for
religious education and social service. The great demand is for
trained helpers for ministers to foster programs in these
churches which will meet the larger needs of worship, religious
education and social service.
<p>A WHITE visitor to the morning services of a popular Harlem church
remarked, "These people are taking their religion with intense
earnestness. A white congregation is usually so restrained in their
services that they seem to measure the transaction they are carrying
on with God." The spirit of the Negro people is shown in the fleeting
hours of their amusement and play, in the furtive expression of their
appreciation of things beautiful, and in outpourings of personality
and emotion as they gather in their places of worship, and as they
render the many personal services the one to the other in the routine
of daily life. Free self-expression in these directions is often
limited in America by economic and social discriminations. Emotional
experience and the personal experience of service, however, find large
objective opportunity through the Negro church. The churches of the
Negro people are channels of their spiritual life blood. They are less
restricted, probably, than any other group organization. Especially in
the South, from which the majority of the Negroes in New York,
Philadelphia, Chicago and
other Northern cities have come in the last twenty years, the
church is the most effective community agency for emotional,
intellectual and other group expression. "The pillars of the
church" are usually the leaders of the community. The social
and cultural life of the group is largely influenced by these
leaders; and the new environment puts this leadership to new
tests.
<p>RESIDENCE in northern cities brings to Negroes several
advantages, such as greater freedom of movement, freedom of
speech and assembly, that give play to increased group
expression and intra-group intercourse. Lack of restrictions on
street cars and railroad trains removes irritation of mind and
body. The greater attraction of the paved and lighted streets,
the parks, playgrounds and water fronts offer allurements to
the young folk. Greater access to libraries, moving picture
shows, theatres, dance halls, and other means of
self-expression set up keen competition with the churches.
<p>The throngs of the present generation have come up
through public and private schools which although inadequate
have given them a point of view based on modern knowledge.
Negro illiteracy has been reduced from 90 to 22 per cent in
sixty years. Thousands have been awakened in rural
communities through such means as visiting lectures ant the
war drives. They are no longer satisified with the older types of
church service. These must therefore be pitched upon a plane
of intelligence with an emotional appeal which holds its own in
competition with those other channels of knowledge and
emotional enthusiasm.
<p>Nearly all the Harlem churches are led by men who sense
this situation. Athletic and social clubs for young people are
promoted. Musical and literary organizations which meet both
on weekdays and Sundays attract large numbers. The Sunday
afternoon Iyccum or forum is on the program of many
churches. Week day religious instruction and vacation Bible
schools have also been fostered. The regular religious services
for the adult congregation in most instances are conducted
with dignity and order, with intelligent sermons to meet the
personal and group problems with which these people wrestle.
These church forces have been the principal power against the
evils of the district which are always present.
<p>The Negro churches of Harlem are visible evidence of the
struggle of an aspiring people to express the best of life within
them. Either in structures purchased from white congregations
or in those they themselves build, they are organizing and
developing personnel and membership to conserve the
spiritual and ethical values of the race. They are struggling,
often against great odds, to provide an avenue of
self-expression to a people that is seeking to serve and to walk
humbly with God.
<hr>
<a name="#note">See Negro Yearbook, 1921-22, pp. 202-3</a>
<hr>
<h4>The <i>Survey Graphic</i> Harlem Number (March 1925)</h4>
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