The Negro's church,.

204 The Negro's Church
TABLE X-ADULT CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP IN SEVEN SOUTHERN
CITIES
Adult Members
City Adult Members Number of Churches Per Church
Houston............... 29,712 160 186
Charleston............. 12,657 61 207
Birmingham............ 45,957 216 213
Atlanta................ 42,684 184 232
New Orleans........... 60,468 222 272
Richmond............. 24,358 89 274
Memphis.............. 47,286 143 331
Total.............. 263,122 1,075 245
of Houston is 63,337; and this gives the city a church for
each 396 Negroes including children and babies. But since
the ideal does not obtain, in that only 29,712 of Houston's
adult population are churched, one must rely upon the 186
adults per church.
In this study the amount per member expended by churches
of 500 members and fewer in 1930 was $12.27. With an
average of 186 adult members per church and $12.27 per
member, the average Houston church would have for expenditures of all kinds, $2,282.22. If 43 per cent. of this
amount was spent in salaries, the average Houston church
spent approximately $981.35 for all salaries in 1930. Even
if the whole amount had been spent in salaries, the sum would
have been insufficient to maintain an adequate staff of paid
workers.
Fifty churches were studied in Houston for this report.
Of that number, 29, or slightly less than 60 per cent. of them,
raised less than $3,000 in 1930-amounts ranging from a
few hundred dollars to $3,000. These twenty-nine churches
had on the average far less than $1,000 for salaries of all
kinds.
In the light of these facts, it seems to be clear that the
available church money in Houston is very thinly spread over
a very wide area; so much so that most of the churches of
Houston must barely exist. Table XI shows conclusively that