“The Black church is where you went to learn about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and so much more.” said Sister Esther Jones, who’s been a member of Christ’s Southern Mission Baptist Church for more than 70 years.
“The Black church was a place where you went to learn how to be an engaged citizen in your community, how to respect our elders, listen and learn in school, how to be an activist,” said Laurel Simpson, former member of the now defunct Saint Michael’s Lutheran Church in Kinloch.
“The church was our home away from home. On Sundays we had Bible School, then main service, then we ate lunch there and then attended afternoon service. We also had Bible study there a couple times a week,” said Lydia Nalls, describing church life at First Baptist Church of Maplewood before it was torn down and replaced by a strip mall. “I’m still a church goer. It’s instilled in me. But so many Blacks have fallen away. And their reasons? Too many to explain.”
These are the views of several Black churchgoers in St. Louis.
The Black Church has always been an integral part of Black communities throughout the country and has gone through many evolutions since the days when White evangelical preachers first started directing their proselytizing to slaves in the late 1700s. During that time, both free Blacks and slaves formed some of the first churches, in varied Christian denominations.
Religion played critical roles in some of the earliest slave revolts, most notably when enslaved Nathanial “Nat” Turner led a group of other slaves and free Blacks on a revolt against slave owners in Virginia in 1831.
During the next hundred years the church played an increasingly central role in all aspects of Black life and can be credited in building the foundation and drive for the Civil Rights Movement.
But even then, the Black church faced many external challenges, arguably, none more notable than here in St. Louis. In the 1960s, in the span of several years, more than 40 churches were destroyed and tens of thousands of Blacks displaced when Mill Creek Valley, an area west of St. Louis, was demolished for urban renewal.
Many of those churchgoers moved to other areas within the city. Some of the congregations never recovered. There remains a number of very successful Black churches in St. Louis, but while driving through the heart of the city, it’s impossible to ignore the dozens of churches closed and boarded up, or in disrepair, reflecting the challenged communities they serve.
Black churches have also been negatively impacted by decreases in attendance. A 2019 Pew Research Center Study found, “Regular churchgoers still outnumber those who infrequently or never go to religious services among Black Americans (58% vs. 41%), though the share of people who say they attend religious services a few times a year or less often has risen over the last decade among Black Americans.”
The diversity of Black American religious life is also negatively impacting the Black church. A recently released Pew study “takes a closer look at the religious diversity among Black Americans,” at https://tinyurl.com/43hfhw78.
For a more in depth journey into the history of the Black church in the United States, PBS is streaming the documentary by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “The History of the Black Church: This is our Story. This is our song,” at https://tinyurl.com/sm6e3epr.
