The Churches of Bronzeville

1
The Churches of Bronzeville
2
OverviewThe Negro Church in American

• From The Negro Church in America, by E.
  Franklin Frazier (Schocken Books New York,
  1963) He writes in the chapter The
  Institutional Church of the Free Negroes, that
  the twenty Negroes who were sold to the Virginia
  settlers by a Dutch man-of-war in 1619 were not
  slaves since there was no precedent in English
  law for slavery. These Negroes and those
  imported later were absorbed in a growing system
  (servitude based upon English apprenticeship and
  vagrancy laws) which spread to all the colonies
  and for nearly a century furnished the chief
  supply of colonial labor.1

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• He goes on to write that little is known of what
  became of the first twenty Negroes, there is a
  record of the baptism of a child of one couple
  among them.
• This is significant because at the time,
  according to the law of England by which the
  colony was governed, a slave who had been
  christened or baptized became infranchised.2

• The increase in the free Negro population came
  from five sources
• Children born of free coloured persons.
• Mulatto children born of coloured mothers.
• Mulatto children born of white servants or free
  women.
• Children of free Negro and Indian parentage.
• Slaves who were set free.3

4

• The Negroes who were free before the Civil War
  were concentrated in the following areas
• Where the plantation system of agriculture had
  not taken root or had died out.
• In the tide-water region of Virginia and
  Maryland.
• In the Piedmont region of North Carolina.
• There were settlements of free Negroes in the
  North and in the isolated communities of Negroes
  mixed with Indians.
• But the majority of free Negroes were
  concentrated in the cities both in the North and
  in the South.3

5

• Enslaved Africans came to the New World beginning
  in the fifteenth century.
• They brought with them a wide range of local
  religious beliefs and practices.
• The majority came from the west coast of Africa,
  but even within this area religious traditions
  varied greatly.
• Islam had also exerted a powerful presence for
  several centuries before the start of the slave
  trade.
• Catholicism had even established a presence in
  areas of Africa by the sixteenth century.

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• Preserving African religions in North America
  proved to be very difficult.
• The Christianity being taught was totally at odds
  with the actual treatment slaves were receiving
  from their masters.
• Some very early writings on slavery emphasize the
  importance of slaves obeying their masters.

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A Slave Litany

• The following example is found in the journals of
  Charles Colcock Jones from 1837 which he
  reprinted a part of the a slave litany from a
  religious service involving slaves

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• Q What are the Servants to count their Masters
  worthy of?
• A All honour.
• Q How are they to try to please their Master?
• A Please them well in all things, not answering
  again.
• Q Is it right for a Servant when commanded to do
  anything to be sullen and slow, and answering his
  Master again?
• A No.
• Q But suppose the Master is hard to please, and
  threatens and punishes more than he ought, what
  is the Servant to do?
• A Do his best to please him.4

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• When the Methodists and Baptists and to a lesser
  extent the Presbyterians began to evangelize to
  the Negroes in the mid eighteenth century, they
  were drawn to the styles of worship which was so
  close to their own.
• They found in the fiery message of salvation, a
  hope and a prospect of escape from their earthly
  woes.
• They took to heart the story of Moses, leading
  his people out of Egypt, out of the bondage of
  slavery.

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• During these times, there were churches that were
  established for Negroes, under the control of
  white people. In the South, one of the first
  Negro Baptist Church to be established in the
  United States was by a slave named Andrew Bryan
  in 1788.
• Bryan was permitted by his master and other
  whites to build a church. But the whites became
  fearful that his preaching would lead to a slave
  uprising.
• He suffered considerable persecution including
  whipping and torture.
• His master came to his defense and he was allowed
  to conduct services in a barn.5

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• Through the assistance of influential friends he
  was able to collect funds in order to purchase a
  lot upon which he built a church. When his
  master died, the heirs of the estate gave him the
  opportunity to purchase his freedom. The church
  remained under the control of the heirs of his
  masters estate and the worship of the people
  continued to be supervised by whites. When Bryan
  died in 1812, he was the acknowledged and
  respected leader of t he religious life of
  Negroes in Georgia.6

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Establishment of Independent Churches

• In 1816, the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.)
  Church was formed under the leadership of Richard
  Allen.
• This was the first major black denomination.

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Richard Allens Bethel Church
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Black Migration
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Bronzeville Churches

• In the 1940s, the churches of Bronzeville
  numbered close to 500, with over 200,000 members
  distributed among over thirty denominations.7

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Classification of the Churches

• The classification of the Negro churches in
  Bronzeville are grouped as follows. Each type
  mentioned plays a role in the life of the
  community8

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• The old line churches
• The established and traditional Methodist and
  Baptist Churches, all of which have permanent
  church buildings
• The store front and house front churches
• During this time period, there are 178 out of 278
  churches in Chicago.
• The churches are usually transitory and without
  deep roots in the community.
• Liturgical churches
• Roman Catholic
• Lutheran
• Protestant Episcopal
• The fringe churches
• Holiness
• Spiritualist
• Eastern Cults
• Mohammedan Temple
• Moorish cult and others
• Intellectual churches
• Those churches which have a rationally expressed
  application of Christianity
• Congregational
• Presbyterian 9

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Easter Morning, April 1941 Storefront Church
19
Sunday Mass, March 1942 Saint Elizabeth
Catholic Church
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(No Transcript)
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Places of Worship in Bronzeville

• The two churches above represent the old line
  churches
• Quinn Chapel AME Church located at 2401 South
  Wabash is the oldest African American
  congregation in Chicago. Founded in 1847, the
  current church built in 1891 is listed on the
  National Register of Historic Sites.
• Olivet Baptist Church located at 3101 Martin
  Luther King Drive. Organized in 1850, it wasnt
  until 1918 that Olivet moved into its current
  building.10

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• Pictured on the right
• is Corpus Christi Church located at 4920 S King
  Dr. The church and school was built in 1901 for
  the Irish. It eventually became all black.
• But the first Catholic school specifically for
  the black families in Bronzeville was St. Monica
  which opened in 1890. Father Augustine Tolton,
  the first African American Priest in the U.S. was
  its pastor.11

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Bronzeville Churches
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Bronzeville Bibliography

• Abu-Jamal, Mumia Faith of our Fathers An
  Examination of the Spiritual Life of African and
  African-American People African World Press,
  Inc. Trenton, New Jersey, 2003
• African-American Religion http//nhc.rtp.nc.us8
  080/tserve
• Black, Timuel D. Bridges of Memory Chicagos
  First Wave of Black Migration Northwestern
  University Press, Evanston, IL 2003
• eCUIP The Digital Library Social Studies -
  Chicago City of Neighborhoods Grand Boulevard
  Washington Park http//ecuip/lib.uchicago.edu/di
  glib/social/cityofneighborhoods
• Frazier, E. Franklin The Negro Church in America
  Schocken Books, New York, 1963
• Houghton Mifflin, Readers Companion to American
  History Black Churches http//college.hmco.com
  /history/readerscom/rcah/html
• Oral History of the Pilgrim Baptist Church
  http//www.itt.edu/ipro
• Sernett, Milton C., ed. Afro-American Religious
  History A Documentary Witness Duke University
  Press, Durham 1982
• Soul of America Chicago Places of Worship,
  http//www.soulofamerica.com/cityfldr/chicago2.htm
  l

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Bibliography

• Stange, Maren Bronzeville Black Chicago in
  Pictures 1941-1943 The New Press, New York 2003
• Trussell, Jacqueline The Changing Face of
  Religion The Suburbanization of the Black
  Church, 2000-2005 http//blackandchristian.com
• Williams, Juan and Quinton Dixie This Far by
  Faith Stories from the African American
  Religious Experience William Morrow, New York
  2003
• Woodson, Carter Godwin The History of the Negro
  Church The Associated Publishers, Washington,
  D.C., 1921 (e-Book http//docsouth.unc.edu/church
  /woodson