The Afro-American., 1895-08-31
CHURCHES NOT
Il, ,EDED.
lHlaslnities lin the North
Iafa n Progressive Col
pies Duty Of'IabOr
e Church and its
Success.


J6 churches located III Northern
communities having SMALL Afro-
American population are dying
out ltis also true that tile White
people are fast ceasing any manifes
tation of interest i'll the continue
ton fsnch societies.
A few months ago a preacher
vas sent to take charge of a certain
small church in town of about 15,-
600 inhabitants, 800 of whom were
colored. He was visited by com
mfttee of city pasta@s ana told that
the colored people would be better
cared for If the separate church
ceased to exist. He MAS presented
with y small purse ana sent home,
This isolate fact WITT serve to re-
call many like occurrences. Sta-
tistics show that ahe colored church
es I'LL sparsely settled communities
are dying out ana observation
shows, that in many instances, the
white citizens seem pleased to see
it. There IL in these circumstances
u lesson that should be needed.
Go into tile town of A III Has
10000 inhabitants and seven very
neat and good church edifces and
one dilapidated coIored church.
The very existence of this shabby
building is a libel upon the Afro
American Tion of the inhabi-
tants and a. much to degrade
them before y public eye. The
elder of this (bby church IL fre-
quently seen the streets IA shab
by attire a1 il often found out
with book \ iging FIJI some ral-
lY. 1T IL also pe tia there will
be one or two of the prosperous
coIored families of the city WHO
are IA anyway identified WITH his
church, As N result the people
who attend the colored church are
, so isolated from refinement, separ-
Nated from the better class of tneir
NWn race and left to their own de-
lces. They develop an intense
pleejinaiee against tho more cnltur
4 (class who stand off, antl thus the
gulf il widened tn such an extent
thaA the better element of the race
caD~e1ert no helpful influence and
soon come to look down on the
church Az a sort of ''hive' of igno-
rance. The preacher, nine times
out of ten, either from honest ig-
norance or craftily policy sides
with his people, denounces the
ssstnck up'' folks and intensities eA-.
isting prejudices. Now that the
public schools are putting new
ideas into the heads of the young
people ~ they grow HIP they join
the so-called "stuck upn Class ana
thepoor church Keeps getting poor
er, and as a consequence ffom year
to year its GETS 4 poorer preacher.
There ATE now A great many WHO
have considered THE matter, ana
WHO are almost of the opinion that
tile naintainence of church under
such conditions IL an eyil.
nile Milwaukee correspondent
ko the Appeal very boldly express
ed iust such an opinion few weeks
ago.
NOV, there maY be reasons WhY,
even III sparsely settled communi-
ties, the welfare of our people de-
mand the existence of colored
churches, but there can be no rea-
son why such churches as 4 have
described should exist. A good
church may be needed; butt shah
bY rundown affair that simply
serves to put n premium on ignor
ance and withdraw \ certain por
tion of the people from ennobling
ances III an evil. Let IL be
lctly understood that this ar-
II intended to apply only to
SQl and Only to snch Por-
ne North as described In |
J e.,.r sles of tonra2s where there
a ps45aS many Acoloro people
aenkad l 1helF lnf lS would be
D clIroh5 Nhlte cl Alurches, separ
ay are s sa afe need ed, provided
d birbaa4 III II f93oilducted as to reflect
NH, h tl 9' 'iiought Al nd best char
,ev goa as fefanGB litY. When
s .,,.,.t Co., ra treats of the
+.b+ 'lieii asF t0 forfeit their
..,,,.; A4st. lhe cultured and
i;s. eolored Sgbeople, under
SsloIls, al drtV bound tO