We may not overlook the fact that many white Christians are doing their best through influential organizations
for a better relationship between the races and that discerning Negroes recognize the difficulties.
Nevertheless, the picture of a racially divided church is still general in the United States today.
Black and white hear the Word and receive the sacrament in separation.
The race question has been a real problem for American Christianity from the beginning. Today about one American in ten is a Negro. The turning aside of the newly arising generation of Negroes from the faith of their elders, which, with its strong eschatological orientation, seems to them to be a hindrance to the progress of their race and their rights is one of the ominous signs of a failing of the church in past centuries and a hard problem for the future. If it has come about that today the 'black Christ' has to be led into the field against the 'white Christ' by a young Negro poet, than a deep cleft in the church of Jesus Christ is indicated.
We may not overlook the fact that many white Christians are doing their best through influential organizations for a better relationship between the races and that discerning Negroes recognize the difficulties. Nevertheless, the picture of a racially divided church is still general in the United States today. Black and white hear the Word and receive the sacrament in separation. They have no common worship. The following historical development lies in the background. At the time of the arrival of the first large shipments of Negroes in America, who had been plundered as slaves from Africa, there was a general rejection of the idea of making the Negro Christian, particularly by the white slave-owners.
