The Negro and his Church*: A Psychogenetic Study

The particularly significant rôle which religion and church play in the life of the American Negro has often been presumed to be expressive of his inherent emotionalism. However, a closer study of the problem reveals that in his religious behavior, the American Negro is guided by general human motives, and rather than being expressive of any specific racial behavior it appears as an adaptive product of particular environmental forces to which he has been subjected since his residence in America. Any race that is handicapped by whatever social circumstances, turns to the most convenient way of adjusting itself to these handicaps. Religion seems to be the universal panacea for all the ills of the world; it is the plastic apparatus that always freely promised those things which the people desired or needed most but were lacking. The organized church is the material representative of a fancied power, capable of giving those things needed; consequently, the discussion of the religion of the Negro must take into consideration his church organization.

Negroes were first introduced to the New World Civilization when they were brought to America as slaves. As the property of their masters they were forced to do as bidden and the things they were taught soon became a part of them. It is almost impossible for a race in bondage to retain its own ways and customs when the ruling race sees fit to force its ways and customs upon it. Because of such conditions we find the Negroes quickly becoming Americanized. As time passed they learned to dress, to speak, and labor after the fashion of their masters. The religion of their masters, with its organized churches, soon displaced that of their homeland. While this explains the beginning among Negroes of organized churches,