- 5 months ago
Roger Wilkins looks at the evolution of the Black church in a time of a growing Black middle class.
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00:00Funding for Frontline is provided by this station and other public television stations nationwide and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
00:11Tonight on Frontline, the prayer, pride and power of the black church.
00:17The church is what we have had all the time, all the way back to slavery.
00:24It's what kept us going, was the church.
00:28Young, successful blacks are returning to their church in record numbers, seeking the racial, political and spiritual core of life in black America.
00:37The culture says you're inferior. The Christ says you are equal.
00:42Tonight, keeping the faith.
00:45God bless you, my father's children. Arise and know they...
00:53From the network of public television stations,
00:56A presentation of KCTS, Seattle.
00:59WNET, New York.
01:01WPBT, Miami.
01:03WTVS, Detroit.
01:05And WGBH, Boston.
01:07This is Frontline, with Judy Woodruff.
01:14Good evening.
01:15Tonight, a report on a powerful institution which has provided comfort and direction for millions of Americans, the black church.
01:24It has shaped our society and affected all our lives.
01:29It's been called the largest black business in America, with at least 20 million members and assets estimated to be at least $10 billion.
01:38Its potential power is enormous.
01:41And because the black middle class is attending in increasing numbers, the church today is growing.
01:48But as it grows, is it changing?
01:51Will its long-standing commitment to the poor and powerless continue?
01:56To find out whether the church is fulfilling that legacy, Frontline correspondent Roger Wilkins went to Chicago with producer Sherry Jones and co-producer Christine Intagliata.
02:08Their program is called Keeping the Faith.
02:22Eleven o'clock Sunday morning.
02:25In the 1950s, this was called the most segregated hour in America.
02:34After all these years, the fact that America's churches aren't very much more integrated now than they were then,
02:41says something profound about our national community and the way it has developed.
02:46Good morning.
02:47Good morning.
02:48Good morning.
03:01All right.
03:13Yeah.
03:14Are you glad? Are you glad? Are you glad to make a joyful rise unto the Lord? For God is worthy! God is worthy!
03:30Trinity United Church of Christ on the far south side of Chicago begins each Sunday with a welcoming ritual.
03:36I came here to look at a church whose congregation of 4,500 members is drawn mostly from the black middle class.
03:44That part of the black population that has grown substantially since the civil rights movement changed the nation.
04:08Moses says in Deuteronomy, he warns the children of Israel.
04:12He says, you know, while you were in the wilderness, you trusted God, okay?
04:17Now you're getting ready to go into a land and live in houses you didn't build, eat fruit you didn't plant.
04:22Be careful because you're going to get rich.
04:24In the black community, there's a song, people sure act funny when they get a little money.
04:27The higher up you go on a social, economic scale, the more cut off from who you are and whose you are people become.
04:35Fifteen years ago, when Jeremiah Wright was called to its pulpit, Trinity was what he calls a white church in blackface.
05:03It had none of the pulsing human power of the black church tradition, and it had 87 members.
05:12In many of the churches that quote middle class churches, they don't sing gospel music.
05:17That is...
05:18Wasn't dignified.
05:19That is not dignified enough.
05:21That's correct.
05:22Wasn't white enough.
05:23All right.
05:24If you want to put it that way, it wasn't...
05:25It wasn't, quote, white.
05:27This church teaches young black people about their heritage from whence they came.
05:46I think there should be a lot more of it.
05:48I don't think that there is enough.
05:50I think there are still too many black people who think white entirely too much.
05:55They just don't think black enough.
05:57I have a friend who, every time you greet him, every time you ask him, how you're doing, answers,
06:12just trying to make it, man.
06:16Just trying to make it.
06:18When I say, what's happening, bro?
06:22What's to it?
06:24What it is?
06:26His answer is always the same.
06:28Just trying to make it, man.
06:31Just trying to make it.
06:34As I listen to his words and listen to our lives,
06:39I hear a strange similarity
06:41where so many of us are just trying to make it, man.
06:47I see a young couple, two beautiful black people,
06:59struggling to survive, struggling to keep their marriage alive.
07:04Hardly enough money to pay bills and buy food.
07:07No money for frills and with little children, no time for frivolity.
07:13He is black and underpaid.
07:15With a degree.
07:17He makes less than the boss's kid, and the boss's kid don't have no degree.
07:22But he does have white skin.
07:24He is black and underpaid.
07:27She is tired and having second thoughts.
07:29And as I see them struggle to keep hope from dying,
07:32struggle to keep healthy self-esteem,
07:35struggle in an environment that seeks to strangle them,
07:38I see this young black couple just trying to make it.
07:45Much of the black middle class moves across the thinnest psychic ice.
07:50Not rich and powerful enough to be truly free.
07:53Too far from the old black culture to be totally comfortable.
07:56I was a poor person trying to make it.
08:00And I felt, you know, I guess I felt tricked in a lot of ways.
08:03You know, I've been, you know, they keep, everybody was telling me,
08:05oh, you, you know, if you go to school, you'll have it made.
08:07And I realized that that was not it,
08:09that my color and my racial background or my racial roots would always be there.
08:15When you play by the rules, you get an MBA from Harvard,
08:25you've been grown to be a chief executive officer,
08:27only to realize you are not going to be in that position.
08:30There will come a point at some time where you have to realize
08:33that the higher force are beyond your employer,
08:35beyond your Mercedes, beyond your degree.
08:39There will come a time when you will be humble
08:41and you will need to return back to where your roots were.
08:45What Trinity is saying and what many middle-class blacks
08:52are finding out that there's still the struggle there.
08:56They have not made it.
08:57They're still struggling.
08:58Then remember, Lord, those with special concerns around this altar this morning,
09:02you know their hearts, you know their homes,
09:05you know their hurts, you know their hopes.
09:08Touch and bless with every blessing you see we stand in need of.
09:12You said you supply our every need.
09:16We've got needs this morning, Lord.
09:18Bless.
09:18And then when we finish having church, help us to be your church.
09:23After the benediction, help us to be your church.
09:27In our homes, help us to be your church.
09:29In our private lives, help us to be your church.
09:32In our dealings, one with another, help us to be your church.
09:37Though our minds wander, our souls love only you.
09:41Let the church say amen.
09:44Say amen again.
09:46God bless you, my father's children.
09:48Arise and know that he hears and that he answers every prayer.
09:52Now, Lord, I will praise your name.
10:15Pray, pray, your name, your name, your name.
10:35No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
10:38There's only you.
10:43You, you, you.
10:50Only you.
10:53Oh, oh, oh.
10:57In 1966, Martin Luther King called Chicago
11:11the most ghettoized city in America,
11:15the backbone of segregation.
11:17Today it's a city with a black mayor.
11:20But in the last 20 years,
11:22America has done almost all the easy integrating there is to do.
11:26The most fortunate blacks have gone to college and to professional schools.
11:30They have become government officials and bank tellers,
11:33corporate executives and entrepreneurs.
11:36And with the money earned from their jobs in the cities,
11:39they have moved toward the suburbs.
11:44The inner city poor are stuck and alone,
11:47more isolated than ever,
11:49living in stark urban desolation.
11:51They have lost middle-income people,
11:53vibrant areas of commerce,
11:56community organizations,
11:57and successful role models.
12:00And they have lost their big and successful churches.
12:07Because it is the one institution in the community beyond white control,
12:12the black church has always been the racial,
12:14political, and economic center of black life.
12:17But now many of the churches that minister to the black poor
12:21are tiny storefronts like the purchased Church of God.
12:24How are you doing today?
12:26I mean in your family.
12:27Any children under 18?
12:30No.
12:30Its ministry includes a regular food pantry for families who are hungry.
12:35The vision here of a better world might be engulfed in the immensity of the need
12:39were it not for the diamond-bright faith of Elder John Burton.
12:43My heart goes out for these people,
12:47anyone that's hungry.
12:49Because I've known hunger.
12:52So it's just a thing that's in my heart.
12:54My mother was that way.
12:56She would give you the dress off of her back.
12:59But I love it.
13:04It's my ministry.
13:07God, I guess God just intended for me to do this type thing.
13:12Because I feel blessed in doing it.
13:14Hi, how you doing?
13:16Nine.
13:19I am so sorry.
13:21We can only take 11 more.
13:23That's okay.
13:23Yeah.
13:24That's it.
13:25We're out.
13:26Oh, yeah?
13:27Yeah.
13:27Okay.
13:28We can only take 11 more.
13:29Okay.
13:29Okay.
13:30See you next time.
13:31Every week the story is the same.
13:34There is never enough for all who are needy.
13:37Actually, it was intended from the beginning that the church take care of this kind of need
13:44of the people.
13:47And it was written right into the laws of God from the beginning.
13:50Hallelujah!
13:51You know it's a blessing to be saved and sanctified and have the Spirit of God dwelling in you.
13:58Yes, Lord.
13:58Because the Bible says in this flesh, don't dwell nothing good.
14:03Sometimes you know you get in a state where you sleep and somebody's got to shake you and
14:07wake you up.
14:08Yes.
14:08Glory to God.
14:09And that's what the Spirit of the Lord does.
14:11Some blacks have likened experience in this country to a lifelong storm and the black church
14:17to a shelter from the storm, a rock, a refuge.
14:21Let me tell you about a man known by many, accepted by few.
14:31All right.
14:31All right.
14:33He'll heal your wounded spirit and give you joy and happiness you never knew.
14:45If I keep my mind on the Father above, He will keep me in perfect peace.
14:59Hallelujah!
15:08Hallelujah!
15:10Hallelujah!
15:12Hallelujah!
15:13Hallelujah!
15:14Hallelujah!
15:15Hallelujah!
15:15Hallelujah!
15:15the black church has always been about strength about liberation lifting up
15:45at a weeknight service at trinity just a block away from purchased in a neighborhood that
15:55lies between the inner city and the suburbs there are shared spiritual and emotional links to the
16:01past the church is what we have had all the time all the way back to slavery we had the church
16:10even as reverend puts it when you had to sneak off into the backwoods to worship god we had him
16:18all the time it was the strength of the black people is what kept us going was the church
16:26this is where we get our our foundation from it's we have founded on that that religion from our
16:34poor parents the old slaves brought us up to where we are today we didn't come on our own merits
16:40they prayed and prayed and prayed
16:43my grandmother was great-grandmother was from the malaglaster islands and she used to tell us how
16:51her mother used to come when she came into the united states used to turn the wash pot down
16:56so they could not hear the slaves sing and pray and she used to say that's how they come up with
17:03that old hymn called dr watts they had no music and they didn't know nothing they knew the words
17:08and they put it into a song that's why people cannot play a piano with dr watts that is strictly an
17:13a cappella it's not supposed to have music
17:15drantes Orth
17:15dr es
17:19dr ont c
17:23dros
17:23dros
17:25dros
17:28dros
17:29dros
17:38dros
17:39dros
17:41dros
17:44Life for blacks during slavery was truly a storm.
17:50Their hidden religion provided respite from their deadening lives.
17:53To God's throne.
18:14The church has always been the wellspring of political and social action in black America.
18:41It rose up in the late 50s and early 60s and provided the backbone for the civil rights movement.
18:47It provided the music too.
18:50Woke up this morning with my mind.
18:55Stay on Jesus.
18:58Woke up this morning with my mind.
19:02Stay on Jesus.
19:06Woke up this morning with my mind.
19:09Now, blacks who have become successful are coming back to churches like Trinity in large numbers.
19:17To churches that are clearly strengthening the souls of the people who seek them.
19:22Well, I want to spend a part of our lesson today talking about Liberia.
19:25First of all, Redon just showed us that...
19:26The rooms of Trinity are crammed full of its members all day, every day, engaged in political as well as religious education.
19:36Collecting food for those who are hungry.
19:38Dealing with problems in the lives of its teenagers, all in an attempt to give strength during the trial of being black in America.
19:48A rehearsal for a special ceremony serves to remind that a major strand of the black experience in this country
20:04has been the loss in a sea of whiteness by many in each new generation of a sense of their own identity.
20:11Because one of the requirements for getting ahead has been for blacks to forget their people's past.
20:19To shed any memory of their lives before they were brought to this country as slaves.
20:24Goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland, goodbye motherland.
20:54the black consciousness movement of the 60s addressed the issue of identity on many levels
21:00cultural history was restored black became beautiful and there was a deep revolution
21:08in the spiritual lives of thousands of young black ministers like jeremiah wright
21:13who began to examine the needs of their people how about the fact that we have pledged to take
21:18what we've got as black people and put it back into the black community
21:22that's what i want to ask do you do that do you believe that
21:28they also began to explore the universality both of god's love and of god's color
21:41wright's ministry at trinity bears the hallmarks of that spiritual revolution
21:46long after the last street corner revolutionary folded up his dashiki and headed off to law school
21:53today trinity is one of the fastest growing and strongest black churches in america
22:04what do you want to be
22:26i want to be a vehicle designer a ministry suffused by black consciousness is especially sensitive
22:33to the developing identities of the children of the church in this case the young black men
22:38well i would like to be a baker i think i have well equal abilities become a baker and i like to cook
22:47uh-huh and i like to eat too all right so i watch tv and looked at lawyers the past years
22:54and i basically like you know the field of being a lawyer it's like it's really exciting
23:00matter of fact there's there are a couple lawyers here in the church that maybe we can just hook you
23:03up with and you can just do like a little internship with them go down follow them around go into the
23:08courtroom see what it actually tastes because sometimes we get a misconception about what law is
23:13about because we see the exciting part of it well i like to be a doctor you can't be what you ain't
23:19seen and so many of our young boys haven't seen nothing but the gangs and the pimps and the brothers on
23:25the corner they've never sat and talked to lawyers they've never sat and talked to a man a black man
23:30with two three degrees um they've never had a chance they never had an option in terms of thinking
23:35i can do this i can be this uh they see a doctor when they're sick they don't they don't get to sit
23:40and talk about me go to med school they don't talk to somebody who writes programs and analyzes
23:44the systems of computers a black guy i can do this i can never have the horizons lifted
23:49that kind of practical reaching out will pull young brothers into the church
23:54commitment to the black community three commitment to the black family four
24:00every situation was was it was like i was on stage you know like i was an actor on stage and i was
24:07looking for somebody to applaud or say good no good where's the hook you know many older members
24:13of the church deal with the ravages of racism in their lives often through individual counseling
24:19sessions with reverend wright you have to act a certain way pretend with a mask and play a role
24:24rather than be howard why can't you just be howard i'm finding that out now i mean howard is cool
24:34god made howard but you used to think that howard wasn't yeah yeah um there's a verse that has taken me
24:42through the past month or so it's isaiah 43 uh one to five i don't memorize it but heart
24:49what the lord says is when you pass through the fire and the trouble in the deep waters i will always be
24:56there and and i like that part and i like the part where he says
25:01i will give up egypt for you i will give up sudan for you i will give up nations for you
25:10you know who who you know gonna give up all that for you for me who you know gonna give up all that
25:16you know people won't even give up a dime you know and and the best part what it really means to
25:22be created in the image of god that you are okay as god created you um that's a very difficult
25:27lesson african americans were the only persons in this melting pot who were systematically stripped
25:36of the history the heritage and who they were as persons if i can somehow be white a lot of black
25:43people have that feeling um if i can somehow be accepted um and africa's a bad thing i'm not
25:51african i'm not african i'm part indian i'm part chinese i'm part of anything
25:55the inner city can tear teenagers apart some of the most self-destructive behavior of black teenagers
26:07is a direct result of self-esteem destroyed by racism at regular youth fellowships trinity gives
26:15the youngsters themselves opportunities to explore their lives this night they improvise a first
26:21meeting between two black girls and two girls who are white i don't know if you have met my um
26:26you know the two new girls have moved into the school well um that's nice to meet me meet you all
26:32well i guess it's time for us to go our mom wants us home by a certain time okay well thanks for
26:46having me nice meeting you too okay bye bye mary do you know what my mom would say do you know what
26:54she would say to me if she knew i was associated with black people she'd say oh so you're associated
26:59with black people no i doubt it very seriously what what did your mom say did she know does she
27:04even know that of course she does her best friend is black no no there's this there is a difference
27:09what's the difference i'm white they're black they're low i'm high i have the opportunity to do
27:19what i want listen mom wouldn't lie to me i doubt it very seriously because she's she hates she hates
27:25blacks so now you know i like both races so now you know that i guess you take my guts
27:33no i don't hate you married i mean we're best friends i couldn't hate you for that for you know
27:39you hate them you hate me simple as that if you don't like the way i you know like a lot of americans
27:47believe that the storm is over at least for successful blacks
27:51but blacks are experts about the dailiness of their own lives and they know the storm rages on
28:06how do we do more than survive without moving into a posture of hating individuals how do we attack
28:25a system that has systemic evil and realize that that's not the individual is just the system
28:30dr king used to talk about we don't have to hate while we straighten the situation out
28:36um that the battle goes on and because you're a christian the quality of the battle has a
28:42different has it because you you are challenged to be like god where you hate the sin and not the
28:46sinner in a conversation with christ what the word says about racism comes through loud and clear
28:55both are is wrong south africa is wrong apartheid is wrong oppression is wrong anybody who feels white
29:05skin is superior to black skin is wrong the president of japan is wrong the president of
29:12regnon is wrong the president of the cook county democrats is wrong the president of the u.s who
29:18doesn't even know his own black cabinet members is wrong anybody who thinks white skin is the primary
29:30qualification for being mayor in this city is wrong
29:34god is no respecter of christian god has created a one blood all the nations that dwell on the face of this earth
29:56god don't like ugly and he ain't too particular about pretty
30:00in a conversation with christ even the race issue gets clarified and that's right here in this passage too
30:18you see the culture the culture had a race problem back in john four this ain't nothing new we going through
30:25the samaritans were the spooks as far as the jews were concerned they were nothing they were nobody
30:37they were to be looked down upon like you got separate entrances in separate facilities
30:42one for one race and one for the other that's what's going on in verse 9 you can't even use the
30:49same utensils got jim crow and apartheid in john four the culture said a jew
30:55was not even supposed to talk to a samaritan simply because he or she was a samaritan sort of like
31:02black and white in the city council of this samaria
31:05but what the culture says and what the christ says are two different things all together
31:14the culture says certain people can't talk to you because you were born in a certain race
31:20the christ says in verse 26 i'm talking to you don't care what the culture says i am he who am
31:28talking with you the culture says you inferior the christ says you are an equal the culture says you
31:36the wrong race the christ says i made your race and i ain't made no mistakes
31:41the culture says the culture says you are ugly the christ says you are beautiful the culture says your skin is black the christ says let's go with mine
31:52the culture says the culture says you got to change and be like miss anne the christ says i love you just the way you are and i came to make a difference in your destiny not in your ethnicity
32:06however acute the needs of trinity's members they pale in comparison to the needs of people living in the vast stretches of impoverished neighborhoods strewn throughout chicago's inner city
32:13the culture says you got to change and be like miss anne the christ says i love you just the way you are and i came to make a difference in your destiny not in your ethnicity
32:20however acute the needs of trinity's members they pale in comparison to the needs of people living in the vast stretches of impoverished neighborhoods strewn throughout chicago's inner city
32:35a third of all black americans are poor those in cities like chicago are more isolated than the urban poor of a generation ago and they're having babies
32:48better than 40 percent of all black children in america are growing up poor
32:55please tell me why why why why why should i feel so so lonely so lonely and lonely
33:15in these neighborhoods there is the gritty survival of churches like this
33:22oh
33:29oh
33:31oh
33:33oh
33:35oh
33:37oh
33:39oh
33:41oh
33:43oh
33:45let's hear us
33:52oh
33:54oh
33:55there is
33:58oh
33:59yes
34:00there remains the disquieting sense that as the population in need expands and grows younger
34:05the churches which serve the poor in the areas of maximum pain are growing older and smaller
34:10and that will mean a big difference in the lives of those growing up in the housing projects
34:17of the inner city when you look back on the better days when you were young here
34:27um was the church a part of your lives yes oh yeah yeah church yeah yeah yeah why'd you go to
34:38church well our parents you know they got us up every morning hey we're going out to church
34:48and that's what we did the nuns used to come out with this big laundry bag and in the laundry bag
34:57were dolls and baseball bats and volleyballs the kids now don't have that you know these women are
35:05all single mothers who grew up in this project they are now organized to provide younger women
35:10here both with advice and with links to the outside world if um you had all of the black ministers in
35:21town sitting at a table and they said to you what is it that the black churches of chicago
35:26ought to be doing to improve the conditions of low-income people what would you tell me marie
35:34what would you tell me if he would teach the mother well this is your mother this is these
35:40are the things that a mother is supposed to do you know you're you're a father this is the father role
35:46and you're the children these are the things children are supposed to do these are the things
35:50the mother is supposed to teach the child you know if church was like that i think you would get
35:55more parents and fathers in church you know if the people want to come to you then you go out to
36:03them do some outreach and knock on doors find out what it is i'll ask them i feel like they need
36:12their self-esteem built up the people do the people do yeah i think they need to get a grip on who
36:18they are and what they're capable of being and what they're capable of doing i think the churches
36:25need to stress that more with their uh people that's coming into the church to make them feel like
36:32they are somebody not just anybody somebody
36:37the needs of those who are left in places like this are overwhelming they need food and jobs and
36:47education for their children and they need role models and people who will fight for them every day
36:52but the two parts of black america are rapidly being propelled farther and farther apart
37:08and those in the black middle class as well as the churches that attract them must now struggle not
37:14only with their own problems but their relationship with and obligations to other blacks
37:23because a few blacks have made it they stop looking at the masses who are locked out they really
37:30don't see them they're invisible um that's a frightening reality in terms of the large number
37:35overwhelmingly large number of blacks who do not see i don't owe anybody i mean i've got mine you got
37:42yours to get very uh very self-centered very selfish i i preach against them i talk about you know the
37:51kind of focused religion that's the lord bless me and my wife my brother john and his wife us four no
37:56more amen no i'm not giving anything back to anybody you know i made it why can't they
38:05i think that if the average black person is determined enough that uh they can overcome of course
38:12there are obstacles that that are going to be in your way and you're going to have to be
38:17more determined one of the many groups at trinity is the singles ministry mostly young black
38:23professionals on their way up some members of this group provide a test of the staying power of
38:28rights message do you believe the single mother who is 20 years old on adc living in the robert taylor homes
38:42can make it and make it for her child just by applying extra effort well now i i i believe that
38:52this can be because of the fact that black women women are to me in my opinion are giving a better shot
39:03at jobs positions more so than black men i think that the black man has been emasculated to an extent
39:13what's your view on that diet i would probably agree that a mother 20 years of age could probably
39:21make it with determination you've got to take up your bed and walk so to speak i mean if you want to
39:27work i mean there's a job out there it may not be the one you want it may not pay the money you want but
39:32there's something somewhere then you can do it i mean if you you set it in your mind that you're
39:37going to do it because they're 40 years old they're going to still be saying the same thing with
39:40self-determination belief in god and in prayer everything is possible are any of you in secular
39:47organizations that the primary purpose of which is to improve the condition of the black poor
39:56i think that our church is that is that you know but i've been so busy at trinity and the singles
40:04ministry trinity and bible study and all the other things that are going on and i have not and i
40:10probably should reach out and do that yeah i mean and you know chicago has a lot of street people
40:16okay but in the winter while it's getting cold that's when you truly notice them and we all got frantic we
40:22we were trying to figure out how we could house these people and get cops and do whatever and
40:25then we you know saying we're talking about a lot of money they needed a warming center they needed
40:32people to go pick up people who were in crisis yeah there's so much to do you know so so many people
40:38are in need and you can't uh you just can't help them you don't know where to begin and what you do is
40:42just do what you can and let it fall out it's all you can do hope somebody else does right somebody
40:48else will be nice on to it but we like this thing called passing the book we need to stop
40:56wanda jefferson is a young member of trinity who grew up poor and after prying open the door to a
41:02middle-class life changed course to become a minister to be done we like to pass the book we
41:10need to stop thinking that the pastor is supposed to solve all problems and we need to start finding
41:17out what the problems are and help support the pastor in solving the problem but we like this thing
41:24called passing the book when i was a child growing up and we would do something bad there were seven of
41:31us my mother would start with my sister who was the oldest and say what happened and then she would
41:37go down the line and we like passing the book we say mama if we just hadn't told me i wouldn't jump
41:45and she never said a word she would just get her best and start and go down the line and just
41:52whoop all of us and when she finished she said i know i got the right one now
42:01there are some blacks for whom blackness is character building wanda jefferson became a minister
42:07in part to use the pulpit to make people uncomfortable about not helping other blacks
42:13there are a lot of people that are sitting up in churches on sunday that are nodding
42:17uh but yet you're not seeing the effects of it in their lives and i you know i really do believe
42:22that they they may be in fear of you know if i start doing all this stuff you know for all of these
42:28other people what's going to happen to me you know am i still going to be able to get my pie
42:32and i realize that the pie is rotten anyway you know um so i think that there's this fear of
42:38i may not get mine there's a fear of going back you know sometimes when you're there and you're in the
42:47old neighborhood you know it's like you know sometimes you stop and you say to yourself
42:51how did i really make it you know how did we ever make it out of here
43:00the physical and the human devastation created by american racism
43:04is far too broad and deep to be repaired by blacks alone
43:10but if black individuals and black institutions do not initiate remedies
43:14if they do not continue to define the problems the rest of the nation will simply turn away
43:26some churches do try to reach back and touch the inner city
43:34the purchased church of god sends its bus to the housing projects every week
43:39to pick up youngsters for the half hour ride to sunday school
43:44and the door shall be open
43:5820 years ago any one of those girls might have been vivian diane hudson a child of the housing projects
44:05who grew up to be a teacher with a master's degree a wife and a mother of two daughters
44:10every sunday morning she now drives an hour from her suburban home to trinity
44:28church's church is doing what the black church has always done
44:38when everyone else in the society says you can't the church says you can't
44:48the journey back to these places is much quicker than the journey out
44:51but many black families have a child like diane who did make it out into the mainstream of american life
45:03often the story of making it involves the church
45:06when i was growing up the church was like a an extended part of my family they were the ones who
45:13said that anything that you want to do and you desire to do you can do it you just have to put your mind to it
45:19but reverie would always say diane don't forget from which you've come you know
45:25and i can't forget because it is it's embedded in me
45:32the children who ride to purchase are among the fortunate
45:36because this church poor as it is tries harder than most black churches
45:42churches are involved in many things but not in helping the poor
45:50many churches today they're involved in praising money
45:55but not for the right things all together they'll do a token
46:02you know of something just to make a show
46:07christ is not manifested enough in the lives of the people that are doing these
46:12uh this type of a church uh it's more to farm and fashion rather than uh lifting up the name of jesus
46:23and this is the whole purpose of the church from the beginning but uh the church has just kind of
46:31slipped away from their responsibility
46:36purchased fulfills its responsibility with help from its rich neighbor trinity which pays for its food pantry
46:43only a block apart but serving different worlds these two churches are activist places
46:48and thus exceptional unfortunately most churches now are status quo
46:54and so that you know to the extent they're not trying to feed the poor and then they're not trying
46:59to find hookup jobs and people they're not concerned about the lowest the least the left out
47:04they're not concerned about the youth they're not concerned about they're concerned about come
47:08let me come here on a sunday here's something that tells me i'm okay and i'm going back to where
47:12i've been going don't rock the boat and when you look at the numbers and look at the facilities they have
47:18and look at the potential for what they could be doing they're not doing it we are not doing the church we know
47:29diane hudson though is setting up a program to tutor young people in her old neighborhood i i feel guilty
47:36what what are these kids getting now who are who are giving to them
47:46we must pay back it's not a such thing as you take and you don't give anything in return
47:53and because we were given so much we owe something to that community we owe something to the people that live in that community
48:00it's family and so i cannot but stay connected i there's a need there's a drive inside of me to not to lose that
48:13she has a personal memory and a racial memory it is one of her roots back into herself
48:19that memory was rekindled the trinity
48:29its annual ritual for the black family is one of its attempts to revive a collective memory
48:35to provide each of its members with a root back and thus to build the community's strength
48:41i've been talked about
48:46shows you
48:58malcolm x asked the question if a cat
49:03has kittens in an oven do you call those kittens biscuits
49:06sons and daughters of africa
49:13born in america
49:17your histories you shall talk about to your children and teach them diligently
49:23talk about it when you wake up talk about it as you go through the day talk about it at the end of the day
49:30for the school systems into which they go are oven systems they are not taught
49:36that they are kittens but that they are biscuits
49:40it was a long time ago
49:45i have almost forgotten my dream
49:47but it was there then in front of me bright as a sun my dream
49:58my dream
50:06i
50:10When I die, I'll live for that dawn, for many rains to come.
50:33The white man came into Africa, Asia, and America like AIDS.
50:39A one-eyed giant, bringing with him knowledge without understanding, science without wisdom,
50:49religion without ethics, and violence without vision.
50:54We remember that confused day in 1863 when those who brutalized our minds, bodies, and
51:05spirits, for 400 years, told us, y'all free now, hear?
51:12Our fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, asked themselves the question, freedom to do
51:21what and with what?
51:24For the blood of our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our great grandparents,
51:30we drink together in remembrance.
51:33Our writers foretold the future in this fashion.
51:38God gave Noah a rainbow sign.
51:41No more water, but fire next time.
51:44You cannot defer a dream.
51:46Fire in Watts.
51:47You cannot defer a dream.
51:50Fire in Chicago.
51:51You cannot defer a dream.
51:53Fire in Detroit.
51:55You cannot defer a dream.
51:57Fire in Newark.
51:59You cannot defer a dream. Fire in New York. You cannot defer a dream. Fire in Boston. Fire, fire, fire.
52:11Once again, a bruised and battered and shaken people look to Mother Africa for direction and found it in a return to blackness.
52:29Millions of our people are now able to look into our own mirror of cultural values and say with King Solomon, I am black and beautiful.
52:59Black family don't stop dreaming. It's nation time. Black family don't stop loving. It's nation time.
53:12Black family don't stop sharing. It's nation time. Black family don't stop praying. It's nation time.
53:21Black family don't stop working. It's nation time. Black family don't stop waiting on the Lord. It's nation time.
53:33In the end, because of their success, Trinity and its members must struggle with an obligation imposed by injustice in the larger society.
53:53This church will be measured by how much of its power will reach beyond its own doors and by how many of its members will reach back.
54:03Back to those left behind.
54:33Last month, the third largest black church in America, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, hosted a gathering of national black leaders of several faiths.
54:46They addressed the increasing problems of the black poor and called for a new activism, using the economic power of black churches to press for change through boycotts and through investing their wealth in black communities.
55:01And black church power may be further recognized in the year to come, an election year, in which the black vote has the potential to make a difference in local, state, and national races.
55:15Thank you for joining me. I'm Judy Woodruff. Good night.
55:19Coming up on Frontline, the biggest corruption scandal in New York City in 50 years.
55:27Everybody struggles for why did this happen and how could it have happened in New York City.
55:33An inside look at the prosecution of crooked officials and a bribery scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
55:40The practice of politics in this city stinks.
55:42Watch The Politics of Greed on Frontline.
55:49Watch The Politics of Greed on Frontline.
56:19Watch The Politics of Greed on Frontline.
56:49Please send $4 to Frontline, Box 322, Boston, Massachusetts, 02134.
56:58Frontline is produced for the documentary consortium by WGBH Boston, which is solely responsible for its content.
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57:17Schools, colleges, and other organizations interested in purchasing or renting videocassettes of this program may call 800-424-7963 or write PBS Video, Post Office Box 8092, Washington, D.C. 20024.
57:37Not the
57:49kinds of еще and most of it, which you should check.
57:50Dad
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