Excerpt from a lecture, The Black Church As Institutional Actor in Contemporary Urban Environment, given on Thursday, April 16, 1998 in the Urban Sociology Class, taught by Dr. Shana M.B. Miller "The turn of the century also saw a great increase in the membership of the black churches. New churches were being formed at an amazing rate. In northern cities like New York, Chicago and Detroit, churches began popping up on the average of one every 2 months. And as quickly as a church would begin, it would become filled to capacity, thus creating the need for even more churches. "With the expansion of the black church, largely in urban areas, the role of the church continued to expand and redefine itself. Moving from the singular object of worship, it began to create more social programs. Reading and tutoring programs were created. Food pantries, job assistance, educational opportunities, the church started to become less of a singular place of worship and more like the community centers that we see in today's society. The benefit of this was that the church was often the only autonomous organization in the black community. It existed for blacks, was supported by blacks, and in turn, served the black community. "However, this was not a perfect situation. As the years rolled by and the ills of slavery slowly began to fade out of the constant thought of the congregations, as new problems surfaced, with lynchings becoming more current, with the advent of the KKK and other white supremacists groups, the black church started exhibiting some strange behavior. "Churches started getting more cliquish. The black church, like other elements of black society, began to buy into the misguided notion that the lighter the better, or to quote the old cliche, "White is right, if you're brown, get down, if you're black step back." The "House Nigger" and "Field Nigger" mentalities began to invade the church at an alarming rate. "We should all be familiar with the infamous "paper bag test" which was employed by many black organizations, most notably the black greek organizations and other college clubs, was finding it's way in to the black church. Many churches had an unwritten policy that darker skinned blacks were not accepted and therefore, not really welcome in the regular worship situations. A light skinned preacher was almost always more accepted than a dark skinned one. And in fact, the lighter the preacher was, the more he was accepted. "Some churches took this notion to an extreme. So prevalent was the practice of blacks being "color struck" that some churches, particularly in the northern areas of the midwest and the south painted the walls of their respective sanctuary a certain color, and if you were darker than the walls, you were denied entrance into the church, or given a seat in the rear of the church. The best example of this could be found at a church which would later become synonymous with Civil Rights, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the home church of Dr. King. I am not sure if the walls are still the same color as they were years ago, but that church had a notorious reputation for shunning the darker brothers and sisters." Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
