The History of the Negro Church

by Carter Godwin Woodson

In spite of their well-laid plans, however, the Negro church finds itself handicapped in reaching the Africans. Controlled as that continent is by the capitalistic powers of Europe, they have much apprehension as to the sort of gospel the Negro missionary may preach in Africa, lest the natives be stirred up to the point of self-assertion. They desire that missionaries to Africa, like race leaders in the United States, be "hand-picked." In other words, the missionary movement must bow to mammon. To the heathen, then, must go those who have served only as forerunners of foreign conquests involving the discomfiture, the oppression, and in many cases the annihilation of the very people whom they professed to be saving.

Following in their wake, a certain American "Christian" organization financed by "philanthropists" recently sent to Africa Thomas J. Jones who, in behalf of his race, sought to carry out this policy. The effect of this mission was soon apparent. After having nobly served in Africa and India, Max Yergan, an International Young Men's Christian Association Secretary, appointed to serve permanently in Africa, recently toured the United States for a mission fund which the Negroes freely contributed that through him some portion of Africa might be redeemed. This man in Africa having ingratiated himself into the favor of the capitalistic government there, however, according to Yergan's statement, influenced the administration to refuse him the permit to work among his own people. The same meddler, according to a complaint made by the colored branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, all but made himself the dictator of the appointments of that department and other Negro welfare agencies sent abroad during the World War. His business now seems to be that of furnishing the world with "hand-picked" Negro leaders to damn even the natives in Africa. The white church then, has not only failed to preach the social gospel of Jesus, but is preventing the Negroes from carrying that message to their own people. In other words, the principles of the humble Nazarene must be crushed out to make money and perpetuate caste.

This and other handicaps, however, have not prevented the progress of the church. Probably the most promising aspect is that Negro ministers of to-day measure up to a higher standard than formerly. They are not diverted from their course by politics and the like. Here and there, of course, are some of little promise, who in a poverty-stricken condition accept almost any bribe offered them by political bosses, but fortunately this number is known to be rapidly decreasing. During the last generation there has developed among Negroes the feeling that the political embroglio is an unclean sphere which the minister should not enter. The increasing duties of the Negro preachers, moreover, have recently so multiplied that they have no time for such service. Experience has shown that even in the case of those who have gone into politics in self-defense that they have accomplished little good or that some layman could have handled the matter more successfully.

We have recently had two striking cases in evidence. Bishop Alexander Walters, after having rendered valuable service to the cause as an educator and minister in Kentucky, California, and Tennessee, became the ranking bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He then decided that his people had been so long duped by the grafters and tricksters masquerading as the successors of Lincoln and Grant, that he would use his influence to have the Negroes divide their vote by supporting Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Dr. J. Milton Waldron, an influential Baptist minister of Washington, feeling that it would mean a new day for the Negro to have this democratic college president of many promises elevated to the headship of the nation by the aid of the Negro vote, did likewise. Disappointed in the end, however, by the hypocrisy of Wilson, who, in his heart hated Negroes, these churchmen saw themselves painfully humiliated among their people, who, in return for the large number of votes which they gave Wilson, received nothing but segregation in the civil service, elimination from public office, and conscription to do forced labor in the World War, while he was promising that the Negroes should have justice and have it abundantly.

The Negro churchmen of to-day realize, as most leaders of the race do, that the hope of the blacks lies not in politics from without but in race uplift from within in the form of social amelioration and economic development. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are interested in the Negro except so far as the race may be used to enable them to get into office. Their platform promises have been not something to stand on but to get into office on. This does not in any sense, however, mean that the Negro minister has lost interest in public matters of concern to every citizen, but rather that he has learned the possibilities in the political world. He will in no sense withdraw from the contest in behalf of the rights of his people. His method of attack will be different. Carrying out this reconstructed policy for the rehabilitation of the race, the Negro minister, like a majority of the thinking members of this group to-day, will welcome the assistance and coöperation of the white man, but will not suffer himself to be used as a tool in connection with forces from without the circles of the race, pretending to be interested in the solution of its problems.

INDEX

Abbott, Lyman, interest of, in the freedmen, [212]
Abrams, Joseph, a Negro preacher in Richmond, [163]
Adams, Henry, pioneer Negro preacher in Louisville, [119]
Adams, J. B., pastor of the Concord Baptist Church, [282]
Afflictions, the effect of, [301]-[302]
Africa, missionary work in, impeded, [309]-[311]
African Civilization Society, the, achievements of, [211]-[212]
A. M. E. Church, the establishment of, [72]-[78];
troubles of, with the Zionites, [81]-[85];
schools of, [205];
educational program, [212]
A. M. E. Zion Church, the beginnings of, [78]-[85];
indecision of, [81]-[85];
struggles of, [82]-[84];
schism in, [106]-[107];
schools of, [206]
African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church of America, established, [192]
African Union Church organized, [107]
Alabama, Negro churches in, [118];
reactionary laws of, [132];
Presbyterians in, [155], [156]-[157]
Alexander, Dr. A., a friend of John Gloucester, [66]
Allen, Richard, the work of, [73]-[78];
recognition of, [73];
early efforts, [74]-[75];
elected bishop, [76];
death of, [101]
Allen University, the establishment of, [205]
Allensworth, Allen, religious work of, [229];
in politics, [229]-[230]
Ambrose, F., a pioneer C. M. E. worker, [196]
American Baptist Home Mission Association, efforts of, [209]
American Baptist Home Mission Society, the, achievements of, [203], [209]-[210];
the attack on, [261]-[264]
American Freedmen's Aid Commission, the work of, [212]
American Freedmen's Union Commission, the establishment of, [213]
American Missionary Association, schools of, [203]-[204]
American Union Commission, the, achievements of, [212]-[213]
Americans, unfavorable attitude of, [41]
Anderson, I. H., a pioneer C. M. E. preacher, [196]
Anderson, Thomas, a preacher in Savannah, [116]
Anderson, William, a supporter of Richard Allen, [76]
Andrew, Governor John A., a friend of the freedmen, [213]
Andrew, a pioneer Negro teacher in Charleston, [8]-[9]
Anglican clergy, the attitude of, 20-24; corruption, [20], [21], [22]
Anthony Street Church, establishment of, in Mobile, [135]
Arnett, Bishop B. W., religious work of, [236];
in politics, [235]-[236];
effort of, to repeal "Black Laws," [236]
Asbury, Bishop, the position of, [26], [28];
work of, [28]-[30]; recognition of Richard Allen by, [73]
Ashmun Institute, the establishment of, [152]
Atkinson, Edward, a friend of the freedmen, [213]
Auchmutty, the work of, among Negroes in New York, [14]
Austin, J. C., a popular preacher in Pittsburg, [282]

Babbit, Bessie, white wife of Lemuel Haynes, [63]
Bacon, Thomas, sermons of, on the instruction of Negroes, [23], [151]-[152]
Bacote, S. W., a preacher in Missouri, [277]-[278]
Bagnall, R. W., a social welfare minister, [277];
advanced position of, [304]
Ballou, Hosea, contest of, with Lemuel Haynes, [64]
Baltimore, Baptist churches in, [111];
Association for the moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People of, the efforts of, [208], [211]
Baptists, early progress of, [85]-[91], [107]-[122], [298];
reason for growth of, [108]-[109], [110];
in the North, [120]-[122];
statistics of schools of, [206];
statistics of, [286], [296];
division and increase of Negro Baptists, [256]-[257]
Baptist Association of Western States and Territories, [200]
Baptist conventions, the rise of, [199]-[201]
Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, [201]
Baptist Home Missionary Society, the American, the work of, [203], [209]-[210]
Baptists (white) the Emancipating, [32]-[36]
Baptists (white) the work of, among Negroes, [31]-[36];
position in 1789, [32];
anti-slavery work of, [32]-[36];
the schism of, [130];
interest of, in the Negro, [160]
Baptized Licking-Locust Association, [36]
Barclay, T., the work of, in New York, [15]
Barnett, Nelson, a pioneer Baptist preacher of West Virginia, [240]
Barrow, David, the position of, [33]-[34]
Bartow, the work of, among Negroes, [11]
Baxter, Richard, ideas of, carried out, [16]
Beach, J., the work of, among Negroes, [16]-[17]
Beckett, the work of, in Pennsylvania, [11]
Beebe, J. A., a bishop of the C. M. E. Church, [196]
Beecher, H. W., interest of, in the freedmen, [212]
Benezet, Anthony, a worker among Negroes in Philadelphia, [18]
Bentley, George, a pioneer Negro preacher in Tennessee, [137]
Bethel Church, organization of, [75]
Bible, influence of, among Negroes, [266]-[272]
Biddle University, the establishment of, [203]
Binga, Anthony, a useful minister in Richmond, [240]
Bishop, Bishop, election of, [106];
schismatic connection of, [106]-[107]
Bishop, Josiah, a Negro Baptist preacher among whites, [54]-[55]
Bishops of England, interested in proselyting the Negroes, [6]-[7]
Black Code, [5]
Black Harry, a pioneer Methodist Negro preacher, [56]-[58]
"Black Laws" of Ohio, efforts to have them repealed, [236]
Blackburn, Gideon, master of John Gloucester, [66]-[67]
Book Concern of the A. M. E. Church, established, [102]
Booker, J. A., an educator, [206];
opinion of, [302]
Boone, L. W., a preacher of power in North Carolina, [240]
Boston, the Negro Baptists in, [121]
Boucher, Jonathan, the words of, [23]-[24]
Boulden, J. F., in politics, [227]-[228];
religious efforts of, [227]
Bowen, J. W. E., a prominent candidate for bishop, [299]
Bowling, R. H., a preacher of renown in Norfolk, [282]
Boyd, R. H., head of the National Baptist Publishing House, [261], [297]
Bradby, a social welfare minister, [277]
Braxton, P. H. A., religious effort of, [228]-[229];
in politics, [229]
Bray, Dr. Thomas, the mission of, [10]
British, favorable attitude of, [41]
Brooks, Bishop Sampson, a popular social preacher, [278]
Brooks, Philip, interest of, in the freedmen, [212]
Brooks, Walter H., quotation from, [41]-[42];
the education of, [217];
attack of, on white Baptists, [261]
Brooks, W. H., a Methodist minister in New York, [277]
Brown, Marcus, a co-worker of Morris Brown, [76]
Brown, Morris, a pioneer African Methodist preacher in South Carolina, [76];
elected bishop of A. M. E. Church, [101]
Brown, William, a pioneer in the A. M. E. Zion Church, [78]
Brown, W. W., popular pastor in New York, [278]
Browne, W. W., a minister in business, [267]
Bryan, Andrew, efforts of, in Savannah, [43], [47]-[53];
persecution of, [49]-[52]
Bryan, Jonathan, master of Andrew Bryan, [49];
his friend, [50]
Bryan, Sampson, brother and co-worker of Andrew Bryan, [49]-[50]
Bryant, Ira T., a publisher, [297]
Bryant, William C., interest of, in the freedmen, [212]
Bryce, John, a preacher to Negroes, [160], [164]
Bull, Henry, a co-worker of Morris Brown, [76]
Bumstead, Horace, an educator, [215]
Burling, William, interest of, in Negroes, [18]
Burns, Francis, a Negro made bishop to Africa by the Methodists, [189]
Burroughs, N. H., the achievements of, [206]
Burrows, pastor of the African Baptist Church in Philadelphia, [87]
Burt, Thomas, a supporter of the work in Savannah, [48]
Buxton, Fowell, a comment of, [27]

Caesar, a pioneer Negro Baptist preacher, [137]
Cain, Bishop R. H., religious work of, [234]-[235];
in politics, [234]-[235];
a member of Congress, [234]
Call of politics, [220]-[246]
Cameron, Paul C., quotation from, on John Chavis, [68]-[69]
Camp meetings among Negro Methodists, [144]-[145]
Campbell, Alexander, sermon of, in Andrew Marshall's church, [114];
trouble resulting from, [114], [115]
Campbell, General, a friend of George Liele, [45]
Campbell, William J., successor to Andrew Marshall, [117]
Camphor, A. P., a Methodist missionary bishop, [299]
Capucin monks, protest of, [3]
Carroll, Richard, a preacher of social welfare tendency, [278]
Carter, R. A., a bishop of the C. M. E. Church, [240]
Cary, Lott, sketch of, [137]-[140];
ordained to preach, [139];
work of, in Liberia, [139]-[140];
death of, [140];
interest of, in religious instruction, [160]
Casas, las, a missionary, [2];
attitude of, on slavery, [2]
Caste in the white church, [306]-[309]
Catholics working among Negroes, [1]-[6];
appeal to Negroes a failure, [98];
attraction of Negroes by, [256]
Challenge to the Negro in freedom, [168]
Change in worship advocated, [254]-[255]
Chapman, James, a co-worker of Richard Allen, [75]
Charleston, a Negro school in, [8]-[9];
Morris Brown's work in, [77];
fracas in church, in, [133]-[134];
Negro churches of, demolished, [134];
Presbyterians of, interested in the instruction of Negroes, [155]
Charlton, the work of, among Negroes in New York, [14]
Chase, Salmon P., interest of, in freedmen, [213]
Chavis, John, an educated Negro teacher and preacher, [67]-[69]
Christian, W., pastor of a Negro Baptist Church in Toronto, [122]
Christian character emphasized, [252]
"Christianity" of the whites, a farce in modern times, [306]-[309]
Church management, questioned, [254]
Churchill, W. P., one of the pioneer C. M. E. workers, [196]
Civil War, the, and the church, [185]-[201];
an upheaval, [188]
Clair, M. W., a bishop of the M. E. Church, [299]
Clarke, James Freeman, a friend of the freedmen, [213]
Clayton, Moses C., a pioneer Baptist preacher in Baltimore, [111], [136]
Cleaves, N. C., a bishop of the C. M. E. Church, [240]
Coke, Bishop, the position of, [26]
Coker, Daniel, a pioneer preacher in the A. M. E. Church, [75]-[76];
elected bishop, [76];
resigned, [76];
work of, in Baltimore, [76]
Cole, Abraham, a preacher of power, [104]
Coleman, Elihu, interest of, in Negroes, [18]
Colgan, the work of, in New York, [14]
Collins, Leonard, a pioneer preacher in the A. M. E. Zion Church, [104]
Colonization Society, the American, opposed, [170]
Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church organized, [192]
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church organized, [193]-[197];
unfair criticism of, [193]-[194]
Columbus, missionary spirit of,[ 1]
Conflict of sects, [19]-[20]
Congregationalists, interest of, in Negroes, [99];
small following, [99];
promotion of education by, [203]-[204];
attract Negroes later, [256]
Conservative and progressive in the Negro church, [247]-[265]
Consolidated American Baptist Missionary Convention, [200]
Control of Negro church, desired by whites, [278]-[280]
Cook, Steven A., a friend of George Liele, [46]
Cooke, John F., founder of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, [136]
Coöperation taught through the church, [284], [285]
Coppin, Bishop L. J., foreign mission work of, [296]-[297]
Corpew, E. G., a preacher in Portsmouth, [135]
Cottrell, Elias, a bishop of the C. M. E. Church, [240]
Coxe, General, attitude of, toward the teaching of slaves, [164]
Crockett, J. W., denominational work of, [297]
Cruikshanks, Amos, a co-worker of Morris Brown, [76]
Crummell, Alexander, the struggles of, [176]-[177];
interest of, in civil rights, [238]
Cuff, Peter, a supporter of Richard Allen, [76]
Cunningham, Henry, a co-worker with Andrew Marshall, [113]
Curry, J. L. M., work of, [214]
Cutler, Dr., a missionary in Boston, [17]