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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 40. The Negro Church - 2. Some Historical Notes
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Chapter 40. The Negro Church 861
cipated themselves from all white guidance—they have their own churches and their
own preachers, all coloured men—and the share they take in the self-government of
their churches really is a very important education. The preachers to our eyes may
seem peculiar. American orators somewhat exaggerate and emphasize our style, and
the black preachers somewhat exaggerate the American style; but on the whole 1 felt
considerably edified by them. They come to the point in a way that is refreshing
after some sermons that one has heard.-
Many Negro political leaders during Reconstruction were recruited from
the preachers. After Reconstruction many of them returned to the pulpit.
Under the pressure of political reaction, the Negro church in the South
came to have much the same role as it did before the Civil War. Negro
frustration was sublimated into emotionalism, and Negro hopes were fixed
on the after-world. Negro preachers even cautioned their flocks to obey
all the caste rules. But there was a new factor, which increased the possi-
bility of the Negro church to serve as a power agency for Negroes j
the
white preachers and the white observer in the Negro church disappeared.
There remained, however, the Negro stool pigeon who reported to the
whites on the activities of Negroes in church and elsewhere.
In practically all rural areas, and in many of the urban ones, the preacher
stood out as the acknowledged local leader of the Negroes. His function
became to transmit the whites’ wishes to the Negroes and to beg the whites
for favors for his people. He became—in our terminology—the typical
accommodating Negro leader.® To this degree the Negro church perpet-
uated the traditions of slavery.
In the actual power situation after Restoration of white supremacy, this
was a realistic and, in a sense, necessary policy. If it becomes known that a
Negro preacher in the South criticizes the caste system—except in very
general terms—he is usually threatened and may be punished physically
or exiled. His church is also in danger. If, on the other hand, he keeps in
the good graces of the influential whites, he can reckon with their backing
and support. To get money for his church and other advantages for himself
and his group, the Negro preacher has to emphasize the patriarchal rela-
tionship—pointing out how ‘^good” the Negro church isj that is, how the
church keeps Negroes from going against the caste system.^ Negro sermons
in the South no longer contain any appeal to accept a slave status. They
even seldom contain, directly at least, admonitions to accept caste subordi-
nation. But this advice is implied when the Negroes’ attention is turned
away from worldly ills.
The Negro church came to serve a vital role linked intimately with the status of
the race. The doctrine of otherworldlincss provided an essential escape from the
tedium and tribulations, first of slavery and later of economic serfdom, . , . The
* See Chapter 34*
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