God's stars were over us; but we had no other house nor home. We were wanderers now. The roof which I had built on the little manse sheltered others who had not toiled for it; and who, without cause, would have laughed at beholding us. Tears blinded me. My heart, my whole body ached. But I could not believe that God had thrown me away. In my clasp was a little hand; and, under the stars, a little, upturned face; and up to my heart fluttered a little voice: 'My papa; my o-w-n, dear papa!' it said." 18 The Rev. Mr. Corrothers remarks of his church members in Boston: "I was glad to resign, and get away from among them, where pastoring among coloured Baptists, at least, is one long nightmare of fuss-dodging." 14. Among the ministers of the 147 Negro churches of Chicago, there are only twenty-two who have had special training. Six of these are graduates of recognized Northern institutions, while fourteen are graduates of Negro institutions, such as Lincoln University, Howard University, Virginia Union University, and others. Some of them have not had a grammar-school education.15 Many Negro clergymen seem to be of a low moral type. The Rev. Mr. Corrothers gives the following account of his dealings with some of them: "I was not given an appointment by the Methodist conference, but was ordered to transfer to their New York Conference, where I would be given a church. This would take me nearly a thousand miles from home, and place me among strangers, at the mercy of the bishop and conference. I was expected to make the trip, of course, entirely at my own expense, and risk getting something worth while, giving up my newspaper work and whatever prospects I had, and becoming plastic dough in their hands. But I had seen so much of the inner workings of things that I was heartily sick of it all. I had seen ministers who were suspected of intimacy with a brother minister's wife sit upon. the wronged husband's case, and expel him because he would not consent to live with the woman; I had seen them draw up resolutions of sympathy and protest in behalf of a Negro preacher who was in the penitentiary for manslaughter; I had seen them expel a poor minister who had built them a fine church, for the alleged reason that he 'had afterward burned the church down,' though there was no legal proof "Corrothers, In Spite of the Handicap, p. 191. “Op. cit., p. 233. 15 Report, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, p. 146. against the man, who vehemently protested his innocence of the charge. After he was expelled, I was requested to 'publish his degradation broadcast in all the daily papers.' I flatly refused to add to the poor man's burden of sorrow, not knowing anything personally about the case. I could not see wherein these ministers were much superior to the Negro boat hands among whom I had once worked, and I did not particularly relish the thought of close association with them. To be sure there were good ministers among them-men of sterling qualities --but these were in the minority, and were paid little attention to. The majority of the ministers were sadly lacking in education, quite often far more so than some of the gambling Negro ruffians whom I had known on the boat. When I added their mental unpreparedness to their unlovely personal traits, I could not see in them enough of those better qualifications which fit men for a holy calling or for leadership." 16 If there are bad Negro ministers, so also are there good ones, and not a few whose struggles in behalf of their race place them in the rank of heroes and true prophets. A notable example of heroic ministry was that of the clergyman above quoted. He continues: "As there was no coloured church within twentyfive miles of South Haven, I organized the Union Baptist church there; and, with a membership of but fourteen, bought a plot of ground 100 feet square; and, in eighteen months, had erected a neat church edifice valued at $3500.00. It was to me a labour of love for the place where I was reared, and for my people there. There were seventy-two coloured people then living in or near South Haven. Only two or three of these ever attended the white churches. The rest went their way, absolutely without religious opportunity or training. Upon learning that I was a minister, they earnestly besought me to establish a church. for them. I realised that no church could live out of the small number of coloured people there; but I believed that the establishment of a church would bring in others, especially in the summer season, when the city, which had become a popular mid-Western summer resort, was filled with its gay crowds of resorters. I believed that the white community would also help. And so I proceeded. "I worked upon every part of the building; and, with the exception of $1000.00 which we borrowed, solicited every dollar that went into the church, canvassing among the business men of the city; trudging up muddy country roads, and travelling, by boat and rail, in various 10 Corrothers, op. cit., pp. 167-8. directions, as far as Chicago, Kalamazoo, Hartford, Dowagiac, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan. I also gave two Sabbaths in each month to the pastorate of a small coloured Baptist church in Dowagiac, Michigan, forty miles away. I put nearly all of my $225.00 into the South Haven church. To support my family, I pitched hay, cut corn, canvassed for magazine subscriptions and helped farmers with their threshing. I also gave lectures and readings, and preached occasionally in white churches. I now tried literary work again: I sold a few poems to the Criterion; to the Voice of the Negro (then the leading coloured magazine), and to the Associated Sunday Magazines. My wife also taught music, having about thirty pupils, all of whom but two were white. There were no moments of discouragement; but, try as we might, there were times when cash was out, and the larder ran perilously low. I received no salary whatever from the South Haven church, and but $8.00 a month from my Dowagiac congregation. And out of that my travelling expenses to and from Dowagiac had to be defrayed. And there were times when we had to share our own small store of food with our parishioners. "We lived continually by prayer. "One winter morning when the snow lay three feet deep upon the ground, and our last scanty morsel had been put aside for our children; when the rent was unpaid, and the last bit of fuel was in the stove, and there was no work to obtain, we knelt in prayer together, and asked God to help us, in His own way, for our children's sake. While we were yet upon our knees, the postman pounded upon the door, and a white letter fluttered in. It was from New York, and contained a check for $20.00 and a letter from Wm. A. Taylor, then the editor of the Associated Sunday Magazines, saying: 'We are rather overcrowded at present with material, and particularly with poetry, but I am retaining this poem for the special reason that I want you to have representation in the Magazine.' "Strange! It was five years before that poem was used; and then I was pastoring a church in New England at the largest salary I have ever received." 99 17 "Corrothers, op. cit., pp. 212-14. |