Previous
Symbols
For Carter G. Woodson, the Black church represents Black Americans’ potential to organize and uplift their communities from within. But the Black church also demonstrates how exploitative Black elites, the mis-education system, and white institutions’ influence have combined to prevent that potential from being realized.
Woodson argues that churches are uniquely positioned to drive political, economic, and social organization in Black communities. First, they’re the only institutions that Black people in the 1930s (when Woodson was writing) wholly control, and secondly, they provide a social space for the Black community to physically assemble and coordinate. Unsurprisingly, numerous businesses and political organizations have emerged out of social networks formed at church. Moreover, the church is a model for how the Black community can work together to form institutions. Woodson argues that, by pooling resources at church, the Black community can form and support other institutions (like better schools and Black-owned businesses).
However, in the early 20th century, the church isn’t actually fulfilling its potential. Instead of helping Black people pool their resources, form a self-sustaining economy, and build wealth, Black churches have largely divided and preyed on their constituencies. First, they’ve divided the community by fragmenting into smaller sects and denominations. For instance, Woodson notes that one town is divided between Methodists and Baptists, who refuse to work together and pursue the Black community’s shared political goals. Meanwhile, many churches have fallen into the hands of scam artists and charlatans who try to profit by extracting resources from the community, rather than channeling resources into it. Thus, the church simultaneously represents Black communities’ potential to achieve self-sufficiency and their failure to do so.
The Black Church Quotes in The Mis-Education of the Negro
The The Mis-Education of the Negro quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Black Church. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
Some one recently inquired as to why the religious schools do not teach the people how to tolerate differences of opinion and to cooperate for the common good. This, however, is the thing which these institutions have refused to do. Religious schools have been established, but they are considered necessary to supply workers for denominational outposts and to keep alive the sectarian bias by which the Baptists hope to outstrip the Methodists or the latter the former. No teacher in one of these schools has advanced a single thought which has become a working principle in Christendom, and not one of these centres is worthy of the name of a school of theology.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This minister had given no attention to the religious background of the Negroes to whom he was trying to preach. He knew nothing of their spiritual endowment and their religious experience as influenced by their traditions and environment in which the religion of the Negro has developed and expressed itself. He did not seem to know anything about their present situation. These honest people, therefore, knew nothing additional when he had finished his discourse. As one communicant pointed out, their wants had not been supplied, and they wondered where they might go to hear a word which had some bearing upon the life which they had to live.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Mis-Education of the Negro LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Black Church Symbol Timeline in The Mis-Education of the Negro
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Black Church appears in The Mis-Education of the Negro. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: How We Missed the Mark
...writing this book). After the American Civil War, philanthropists and the federal government helped create churches and schools for emancipated Black Southerners. During Reconstruction, these schools became publicly funded. But rather...
(full context)
Chapter 4: Education Under Outside Control
Woodson praises the white missionaries and philanthropists who established schools and churches in the South after the American Civil War. But he argues that the generation of...
(full context)
Chapter 6: The Educated Negro Leaves the Masses
...masses, which indicates that their education has failed them. For example, they seldom attend Black churches, which are crucial institutions that help support entire communities, including schools and businesses. Yet “highly...
(full context)
The church is the most important institution for uplifting the Black community because it’s the only one...
(full context)
Chapter 7: Dissension and Weakness
Black churches continue bickering, which divides the community. For instance, one rural town has no church because...
(full context)
...haven’t developed their minds through education. Meanwhile, tricksters and con artists take advantage of the church’s power to exploit people. This makes honest preachers’ jobs even more difficult. Woodson remembers how...
(full context)
...emotional, exaggerated style from white Protestants, who have similar practices, like speaking in tongues during church. Woodson also thinks that Black people derived a misguided moral vision from the church by...
(full context)
Chapter 10: The Loss of Vision
...masses. For instance, some rent to poorer Black people at exorbitant rates, while others start churches or overcharge clients for poor service. Black politicians know they will receive the Black vote,...
(full context)
Chapter 12: Hirelings in the Places of Public Servants
...people need to change their own perspective before they can rise socioeconomically. For instance, teachers, church leaders, and doctors should stop scamming their clientele and spending beyond their means. These “misleaders”...
(full context)
Chapter 14: The New Problem
...traditions. Black preachers should reinterpret the Bible for themselves, and to support this work, Black churches should come together to open a few well-funded universities. (In the 1930s, there are too...
(full context)
