The Negro's church,.

Fellowship and Community Activities

159

to render service, while white singers and musicians seldom
enter Negro churches for this purpose.
The Negro ministers interviewed in the course of this study
have interesting comments to make on this relationship. They
think that, in a general way, the white minister does not care
to deal with Negroes. On the other hand, the Negroes are
not begging for this contact, but feel it their Christian duty
to give a cordial response whenever an invitation comes.
The exchange of pulpits, according to the Negro minister,
was for a long time considered as a novelty, an entertainment
by both Negro and white churches. What the ministers said
mattered very little, and they did not expect an invitation to
return until the next special Sunday.
Some ministers say that it is all a farce and they see little
good in white and Negro cooperation. Others, happily, see
the good of interracial cooperation if it ever becomes a real
cooperation on the basis of mutual exchange, that is, a mutual
exchange of something other than pulpits.
Ignorance of one another is recognized by these Negro
ministers as one of the obstacles. One minister gave this very
fine comment: "I had no faith in the white man's religion
until I began to associate with them." Another said, "The
exchange of pulpits would be good if it were not confined to
the large churches."
In Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, there are active city Church Federations which in some
phase of their work recognize the Negro. Usually this phase
is either the Interracial Sunday event, or through the department of religious education.
Negro participation in Church Federation programs almost
invariably comes under the heading of a special committee
or program. It is seldom that Negro participation is anticipated as a natural part of the federation program. Whether
this is owing to the reluctance of the Negro or to the customs of interracial activity has not been conclusively deter