Segregation in Churches

Report Outline
Churches as Last Stronghold of Segregation
Concern of White Church Over Negro Status
Role of Negro Church in Segregated Society
Factors Aiding and Hampering Integration

Churches as Last Stronghold of Segregation

Outlawing of segregation in public schools by the Supreme Court last May gave a strong moral boost to churchmen who have been making sincere, but so far largely ineffective, efforts to do something about racial separatism in the sphere of religion. While church leaders over the past decade have preached with increasing vigor in favor of racial integration, the vast majority of whites and Negroes have continued to go their separate ways to Sunday worship. Of all American institutions, the church has seemed the most resistant to change in this respect. It is now possible that compulsory termination of segregation in education will help in time to promote its voluntary abandonment in religion.

Recent church activities point to profound changes in the attitude of the clergy and influential lay leaders toward racial distinctions; the groundwork already may have been laid for a truly interracial religious life in the future. The moral dilemma rising out of the conflict between Christian principle and the practice of segregation—detected by Myrdal a decade ago—has now come prominently to the surface. Old taboos against discussion of racial separatism from the pulpit, particularly in the South, have fallen away. While the Supreme Court was still weighing the school segregation question, southern churches were trying to prepare the minds of the people for acceptance of the anticipated verdict.

The Court's decision itself was warmly welcomed by church leaders. Often a note of regret, that the courts should be in advance of the church with respect to so fundamental a Christian principle, was sounded. Unquestionably, there are many more white churchgoers today who are disposed to accept the implications of mixed worship than there were a few years ago. It is doubtful, however, whether many more Negroes are ready to give up their own Negromanaged religious institutions for the as yet uncertain benefits of mixed church membership.