The Negro's church,.

The Church in Negro Life7

7

Not many years ago, the militant Negro preachers in a certain section of South Carolina were silenced by threats of
violence, and in some cases actually run out of the county,
because their messages were not considered the kind that
would keep Negroes in their "places"; but those who preached
about heaven, who told Negroes to be honest and obedient,
and that by and by God would straighten things out, were
helped financially in church projects. They were held up to
other Negroes as embodiments of the virtues of true Negro
leadership. Such Negroes could usually get a little financial
aid to build new churches and renovate old ones, and they
were sometimes encouraged by the whites in their efforts to
split the church.
To be sure, it was not always financial aid in the building
of churches or the renovation of old ones that the "safe, sane"
minister received, but personal gifts such as clothes, money
and public acclamation on the part of leading whites. In this
study, cases were found where the site for the Negro church
was given by the white landowners. Economically, it was
profitable to the landowners to keep Negroes satisfied and
have them honest. The Negro preacher and the Negro
church were instruments to this end. And the methods most
often employed were to boost and encourage the Negro
preacher who taught the Negro the "right" doctrine, and to
allow the Negro religious freedom in his church. In any
tense situation, these Negro preachers could be relied upon to
convey to their Negro congregations the advice of the leading
whites of the community. Examples of this kind could be
multiplied indefinitely.
Continued Restraint Causes Increase in Number of Negro
Churches
The continuation in American society of artificial limits to
the free functioning of the Negro in political, civic and economic life have tended both to magnify the importance of the