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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 14. The Negro in Business, the Professions, Public Service and Other White Collar Occupations - 5. The Negro Minister
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321
Chapter 14. The Negro in Business
5. The Negro Minister
Clergymen constitute the second largest group among Negro ^^profes-
sional” workers. They also enjoy a complete monopoly behind the caste
wall. The ministry is the only profession in which Negroes have more
representatives than they have in the general population (Table 3 ). There
are several possible reasons for the large number of Negro ministers: that
Negroes are more divided in their religious interest than whites; that
restricted opportunities in other desirable fields make a larger number of
Negroes become preachers; that more Negroes attend church than do
whites.®
The educational level of Negro ministers shows great variations; the
average is extremely low.^ The same is true of salaries. A few large Negro
churches may pay as much as from $5,000 to $7,500 a year, and salaries of
$3,000 or more are not infrequent in the larger city churches. At the other
extreme are those ministers, particularly in rural areas, who have to be
content with a salary of a few hundred dollars a year or with a fluctuating
collection.^® It goes without saying that a great number of Negro clergy-
men have to have other employment on the side; it may even be that the
ministry is a sideline which gives them their opportunities in other occupa-
tions. Some ministers are teachers. Others may be farmers or laborers.
Sometimes ministers are offered free shares in business enterprises in return
for using their Influence in behalf of such economic ventures.^^ Some Negro
ministers are associated with morticians. Small gifts from benevolent whites
also play a role in many Negro ministers’ budgets. Their outside economic
connections give some Negro ministers an extra influence over their congre-
gations.® The income of many a minister of a small congregation “depends
solely upon his ability to demand it from the members for religious pur-
poses.”^- In the Holiness and the Church of God congregations it has been
usual that pastors demand a tithe. Even plain misappropriation of money
has occurred: once three bishops of the Methodist Church were suspended
for this reason.’^®
Although many Negro ministers have been guilty, at one time or another,
of these malpractices, it does not follow that they are characteristic of the
entire Negro clergy. Part of the explanation is that the position of most
‘See Chapter 40. While over 16 per cent of all clergymen in 1930 were Negroes, the
value of the Negro church edifices in 1926 did not constitute more than about 5 per cent
of that of all church buildings in the United States. Even this, however, is a pretty good
record compared with the Negro’s share in the entire property valuation of the United States
which amounted to about 2 per cent (See Carter G. Woodson, T/te Negro Professional Man
and the Community [1934], p. 66.)
^
See Chapter 40.
* See Chapter 40.
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