What might it mean then if more young Blacks go unchurched?
Are Black men still going to church? Research shows that nationwide fewer Black men, particularly young Black men, are attending services.
The Black Church has long been an institutional backbone in the community, with a foundational role in the Civil Rights Era—and providing a critical form of social cohesion and power, particularly political power.
So, what does it mean if this cultural institution declines in impact? Where do young Black men find the guidance, support, and political expression the Church historically provided?
Black Church-led campaigns to expand and protect voting date back to the Civil War, but momentum peaked during the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and ’60s. In 1957, church and civil rights leaders organized the Prayer Pilgrimage of Freedom—a celebration on the third anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that became a rallying cry for voting rights.
“To [the Rev. Martin Luther] King and other civil rights leaders, the Black Church was a key institution within the pro-democracy movement,” notes historian David Daniels III, who joined the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary in 1987 and was inaugurated professor of church history in 2003. “They believed its reach could be harnessed to eradicate the barriers to voting and expand accessibility of voting and enlarge the number of voters.”
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of history’s most profound civil rights achievements. Following its passage, the disparity in registration rates between Black and white voters dropped from nearly 30 percentage points in the early 1960s to 8 percentage points just a decade later.
Church initiatives and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had a powerful, positive influence on Black mobilization. Black voter turnout went from 40% in 1960 to 60% in 1984.
The peak came in 2012, as President Barack Obama sought re-election. Black voter turnout that year reached 66.6% of eligible Black voters, which was 1 percentage point higher than overall white voter turnout. This threshold in Black voter mobilization has not been seen before or since.
According to two longtime pastors, local congregations are experiencing this trend in declining attendance numbers.
“Since the pandemic, I don’t see as many Black males coming to the church,” said Reverend Dr. Tracey Gibson, pastor of St Peter’s AME Church in South Minneapolis. She was first appointed in October 2022, two years after the pandemic forced churches to close and hold virtual services. “I wasn’t at the church before the pandemic,” she noted.
Shiloh Temple International Bishop Richard D. Howell, Jr. has been at the North Minneapolis church founded by his grandparents since 1980. “What I’m seeing, at least at Shiloh, is a significant slight increase of men coming, more men than ever before. [Yet] women still outnumber men.”
Howell added, however, “We’ve seen a decline of Black women in Protestant churches overall across America. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a tremendous decline.”
Historically, Black churches served as a source of comfort and support for Black men and a space where they could express their spirituality, connect with their cultural heritage, and seek support without fear of discrimination.
Bishop Howell noted, however, that regular attendance in Black churches began to decline decades ago. “After Dr. King’s assassination in 1968, we started having new generations who never went to church. They stopped going,” he explained.
“So now…in the Black populations, we probably have more unchurched than we do in church. There is absolutely no familiarity with the church at all [among these individuals] outside of funerals.”
Many Pew Research Center studies in recent years have found that Black Americans tend to be more religious than white Americans.
A 2021 Pew report, which at the time was its largest sample, surveyed 8,660 Black adults between November 19, 2019, and June 3, 2020—almost double the 4,574 non-Black adults surveyed for comparison. It found that 60% of Black Americans attend services in Black congregations, and 7 in 10 Black adults say that the church offers them spiritual comfort.
Two-thirds of older Blacks—Baby Boomers and Silent Generation—say they regularly attend Black churches, slightly more than half of Black Generation Zers and Millennials. A more recent Pew study found 47% of Blacks attend church at least once a week—more than Latinos (39%), Whites (34%), and other/mixed respondents (34%).
Both Gibson and Howell agree that Black attendance in church is not like it used to be, especially among Black men.
“I think some of it is generational, because the older men, 50-plus, 60-plus, they do come,” noted Gibson. “A couple of younger guys come because they’re on a ministry that they’re responsible for. There are not many [Black] men,” said the pastor.
Howell said he has seen lately “a rise of men within their 40s and up. Some are starting to come to church and asking questions because they are mostly wrestling with their destiny.”
The bishop pointed out that Black churches may need to devise better outreach strategies. “The church has to do a better job…in really having conversations with these new, unchurched individuals.
“That does mean going to homes, going to prisons, going to hospitals, going to the street, creating conversational groups within the building itself, or where the church is meeting, and inviting these individuals to come and have a conversation.
“They don’t want to be preached at. They don’t want to be hooked and hollered at,” Howell said. “They want to have a decent conversation.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.