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CHAPTER 40
THE NEGRO CHURCH
I. Nonpolitical Agencies for Negro Concerted Action
The primary functions of the Negro church, school, and press, which
will be dealt with in this and the following two chapters, are not, of course,
to be agencies of power for the Negro caste. Nevertheless, they are of
importance to the power relations within the Negro community and
between Negroes and whites. They bring Negroes together for a common
cause. They train them for concerted action. They provide an organized
followership for Negro leaders. In these institutions, theories of accommo-
dation and protest become formulated and spread. These institutions some-
times take action themselves in the power field, attempting to improve the
Negro’s lot or voicing the Negro protest. Even more often they provide
the means by which Negro leaders and organizations, which are more
directly concerned with power problems, can reach the Negro people.
The Negro churches and the press are manned exclusively by Negroes.
They are not interracial institutions as are the successful Negro protest and
improvement organizations we analyzed in the preceding chapter. The
school—^when it is a ^^Negro school,” that is, when it is segregated—is also
almost always Negro-staffed, except for a few colleges. None of these
organizations is, however, outside the control of the whites. The Negro
press is the freest among these Negro agencies j
the Negro school is the
most tightly controlled. But in all these institutions Negroes are among
themselves. They are usually away from the presence of whites, and this
creates a feeling of freedom, in smaller matters even if not in major
policies.
The very existence of these Negro institutions is, of course, due to caste.
Without caste there would be no need in America for a specialized Negro
press, for segregated schools or for separate churches. Under the caste
system they all take on a defensive function for the Negroes, and some-
times they take on an offensive function. Generally speaking, the Negro
press is, in this sense, more radical than the other nonpolitical agencies.
Besides its primary function of replacing the old ‘^grapevine telegraph”
in the protective Negro community and of providing Negro news, it is one
of the chief organs for the Negro protest. The other agencies are generally
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