The Appeal., 1910-10-15
THE COLOR LINE IN THE
BISHOPRlC.

A few Afro-Americans are at the
general convention of the Protestant
Episcopal Church now in session at
Cincinnati making a fight for the
drawing of the color-line! and the
election of an Afro-American bishop,
whose activities shall be confined to
his own race, and contend that a new
diocese should be set apart to include
the Afro-American churches of the
country.
There are about 13O Afro-American
Episcopal Churches in the country and
of these only % were represented at
the recent meeting of the Colored
Clergy in Cleveland, Ohio, which
authorized the appeal for segregation
The majority of those present are
stipendiaries of white churches and
not self-supporting parishes and do
not represent the great body of the
Afro-American churchmen.
The leader of the Afro-American in
surgents is located in a diocese in
which no color-hne is drawn. He
has a seat and vote in the dio-
ceasOn convention. The men in
the movement do no even rep
resent the unanimous sentiments
of their own congregations. There is
certainly no desire upon the part of
the Afro-American clergy to depart
from the ancient canons of the
Church, and among the laity the mat
ter has received but scant considera-
ton.
THE APPEAL has canvassed the
matter and finds that there is no
strong sentiment among the great
body of the Afro-American clergy or
laity for race-line bishops; in
deed, the majority of the race within
and without the Church, are bitterly
opposed to the color line in the
Church, and feel that the growth of
prejudice against the race in the
United States is primarily due to the
attitude of the Caucasian Church and
it's failure to stand for the much
vaunted precept of the fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of man. The
AfrO-Americans nearly all feel, al
though many do not express them
selves, that the attitude of the ma
jority of the so-called Christians to
their brethren of darker hue is not
that laid down by the meek and lowly
Nazarene.
The one church which more nearly
holds to the true Christian ideals so
far as the treatment of the Afro
American race is concerned, is the
Protestant Episcopal Church. Every
where in the world, except in some of
the Southern United States, the Afro
American communicate is in the
Church the equal of his white brother.
Some distinctions are made between
the races in the South, but these dis
ordinations are due to the unholy
prejudices of the white people living
in that section, and do not reflect the
sentiments of the great body of the
Church throughout the world.
The Afro-American people prefer
their present status quo in the Episco-
pal Church. Anything which will tend
to separate the races in the Church is
to be deplored as un-American and
un-Christian.
The establishment of a color-line in
the Episcopal Church will not draw
Afro Americans to the Church; it will
tend to drive them away. Many are
communicates for the very reason
that the color-line is not generally
drawn. The election of an Afro-Amer-
lean bishop would not be a novelty as
there are already in existence colored
churches in which colored bishops are
in complete control.
THE APPEAL trusts that the many
God-fearing men now in Cincinnati
as delegates to the general convention