Alexia Lawson
Arts Editor
Families dressed in their Sunday best. Little girls in frilly dresses prancing into the church. Choir unified in robed attire, harmony, and beat. Women adorned in colourful, wide-brimmed hats in the pews ahead.
These visual descriptors bring the “black church” to our imaginations. The idea of a black church, or African-American church, refers to Protestant-Christian churches that have predominantly black congregations. The African Methodist Episcopal and the Church of God in Christ, are just two examples of historic black denominations that comprise the black churches. Its history is complex and multilayered, with black history and black church history, often overlapping.
Black churches have historically functioned as a safe space for black people, as it is a communal gathering point, where values are exchanged and attendees can freely worship. Structurally, it is where black autonomy is exercised, as membership can be attained, and preachers, ministers, and the like, assume positions of authority. Despite denominational differences, black churches represent not only religion, but community, culture, and home.
On June 17, 2015, when a white supremacist murdered nine black church members during a church bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, it sent an eerie chill throughout the black community.The attack usurped this idea of safe space as a place of worship fell victim to this premeditated violent act. Even stranger was that the church, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, has historic roots and involvement in the civil rights movement, fighting the very racism that was perpetrated that day.
#PrayforCharleston and reportings of the incident spread rapidly throughout social media and news outlets. Under the radar, however, were the seven black churches that were burned in the southern United States within a short period following the church shooting. Twitter activists spoke against the news outlets’ silence using “#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches.” The hashtag circulated, criticizing mainstream United States media outlets for downplaying or ignoring the story, while also assembling a grassroots level investigation.
It seemed like a mystery. Not only were the targeted churches different denominations, but little evidence suggested that the fires were linked. The only common thread among the confusion was that these were indeed all black churches.
But it also seemed familiar. These incidents triggered a memory of the past that confirmed they were not necessarily isolated.
Racially-motivated church attacks are not a new phenomenon in the United States. Between 1954 and 1968, during the civil rights era, arson and bombings of black churches were a weekly occurrence. In 1963, four young girls were killed by the Ku Klux Klan in the Birmingham church bombing, a galvanizing force in the civil rights movement and the push for voting rights. An 18-month period between 1995 and 1996, saw 59 incidents of arson against black churches.
On a surface, these attacks seem spontaneous. But if you look closer, you will recognize a pattern. Attacks on black churches often correlate with times of change. They were and are a reaction against change, and against gains, such as the increasing of exercising democratic rights for black people. They are violent cries against confirming the humanity of black people, and reflection of the fear of black people rising in society.
You see, black churches are more than just a physical place of worship. There is a deeper link between black power and the spirit of Christ, which was, and is, revolutionary to the entire system of slavery, unveiled within black churches. This link confronts white supremacy by emancipating self-hatred, as blacks acknowledge their worth as individuals and as a collective. This link also challenges racism, as white people are forced to acknowledge blacks as equal human beings, made in the image of God.
In the face of these acts of racism and violence, black communities and members of black churches still rise. Family members of the victims of the Charleston shooting responded with unexpected forgiveness for the shooter. Perhaps arsonists and other perpetrators of terror fail to realize that the joy and dignity of black people is not bound by the four walls of a building.
They might not realize the destruction of a church is not biblically possible, since a church is not necessarily a building, but the people in it. Maybe if they look closer, they might see the stronger foundation upon which these churches are built. From this lens, they will see why black churches will not be shaken, since the true cornerstone of their church, cannot be destroyed.
