Volume 10, Issue 2 (1996) The Black Church: Facing and Responding to Social, Economic, and Political Challenges

In order to understand and appreciate the critical importance of the Black Church in the empowerment of Blacks and, indeed, other communities of color in the United States, I am pleased to introduce the Spring 1997 issue of the Trotter Review. As noted above, we begin this issue with a reprinting of an essay by George E. Haynes, originally published in 1928, as part of a report issued by the Commission on the Church and Race Relations and sponsored by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Haynes described the involvement of the Black Church in the Black community during the 1920s, and illustrates the critical role that this institution played in the social and economic, as well as spiritual, survival of Black people in this country. Special appreciation and thanks are extended to Sage Publications for allowing us to reprint this important article.