Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described, “eleven o’clock on Sunday morning as the most segregated hour in America.” This was truer in the early 1960s than it is today.
What may be surprising to many is that 100 years earlier in the American South, the worship hour on Sunday morning was one of the most integrated hours of the week.
In Georgia, with the exception of a few African-American churches located in the larger cities, almost all congregations were integrated on Sunday morning. It was after the Civil War that newly emancipated slaves desiring to exercise their new freedom and autonomy began organizing new churches.
In 1930, the clerk of the First Baptist Church in Athens, T.S. Mell, wrote concerning the history of the black and white members of the congregation. Black and white members of the church worshiped together until 1848. In that year, a separate building was built for the black membership. Both branches shared the same pastor and deacons, with the black branch meeting on Sunday afternoon. The black members of the congregation did conduct their own separate church business meetings, which included trying members for various offenses and turning them out for improper conduct.
After the Civil War, the black branch was invited to remain as a part of the larger fellowship. Instead, as was happening in churches all across the South, they chose to request their letters of membership and, according to the church history, “This was the beginning of what is now (1930) known as the Hills Baptist Church.” The article described the discussion taking place concerning the possible separation as being “of the kindest manner on both sides.”
During this same time, in what was then the west side of Clarke County, both Shady Grove Baptist and Chestnut Grove Baptist were formed by former black members of Mars Hill Baptist. The last membership request for a black member was granted in the late 1870s, many years after the war.
At White Plains Baptist in Greene County, the black membership was again invited to remain, but likewise choose to form a separate congregation. The white congregants gave the new black congregation the old church building. Because the black congregation did not have a pastor, the white pastor (who had already been pastor of the black members for a number of years) told them he would continue as “long as they needed him.” He pastored both the white and the black congregation for two years until the black congregation found a pastor.
The establishment of black congregations after the Civil War was an expression on the part of the emancipated slaves of their new freedom. Unfortunately, over time it was not viewed as a symbol of emancipation (that which breaks down barriers) but of that which divides, or segregation.
Personal theology or worship styles may dictate one’s preference in a local church, but the Bible says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)” There is a larger unity that goes beyond the particular church door one walks through each week.
As many churches observe Race Relations Sunday in the coming weeks, may we remember Jesus’ prayer for his followers was that we would be one. This prayer finds its answer in the liberating truth that in Christ all sin, including the barriers of prejudice and hate, was nailed to the cross. In Christ may we discover the emancipation of mind from the chains of prejudice as well as the emancipation of heart and soul.
Rev. Charles G. Jones is a Baptist minister who lives in Watkinsville.