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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - X. The Negro Community - 43. Institutions - 3. The Negro Church in the Negro Community
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Chapter 43. Institutions 941
sometimes even has control over a few jobs, political or otherwise. Poli-
ticians, both white and Negro, realizing that Negroes are in great need and
are easily influenced by any display of friendliness or of power, often make
use of the large churches even without the minister’s express assent. They
make an appearance at a church service and conspicuously donate large
sums of money at collection time. Many of the church members inter-
viewed by Gosnell did not resent a white politician even in the pulpit, since
they felt that the Negro needs all the white influence he can get, and since
they do not have time to attend regular political meetings in which they
are interested.^® The church, as the community’s most central public institu-
tion, seems to many Negroes to take on political functions, as other non-
religious functions, quite naturally.
The Negro community is so poor, and the number of Negro churches so
large in relation to the number of churchgoers,® that the upkeep of the
church is a financial drain. A good portion of the time during an average
church service is taken up with the collection, and there is a tendency to
emotionalize the collection so as to elicit more money.^^ Both in the
South and In the North, there is importuning of white churches, white
businessmen, and other white individuals for money to support the
churches. Still the average Negro does not get much back from his
church in the way of community services.^® Relatively few of the
churches—even the urban churches—offer facilities for recreation, and
the amounts spent on charity, education and social service are pitifully
small. This is partly due to the fact that there are too many churches,
which makes the overhead expense too high.^ Too, the urban Negro church
often gets itself Into great debt when it buys or builds a church edifice. In
Mays and Nicholson’s sample of urban Negro churches in 1930, 71.3 per
cent had debts on their buildings.^® Finally, Negro churches have poor
business practices.^ For all these reasons, and relative to the poverty of the
congregation, the Negro church is more expensive to the average Negro
than the white man’s church is to him. Most Negroes are aware of this
fact and are not happy over it.
The Negro church is at once modeled after the white church and yet
fitted into the needs and culture of the Negro community. Theology and
church service are the same as in white Protestant churches. Emotionalism
was borrowed from the whites but has been retained after most whites have
abandoned It, and is now considered a Negro ^^characteristic.” Although
Negroes do not, on the whole, pay much attention to the moral injunctions
of the church, the church has been the major center of community life, and
the preacher has been the major leader of the community. But this is
• For statistics on the number of members per church, see Chapter 40, Section j-
**
For the facts on church expenditures, sec footnote 30 of Chapter 40.
See Chapter 40, Section 5.
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