White churches partitioned enslaved and later black congregants by seating for centuries

Evidence

For example, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as Protestant churches were springing up in newly settled territories after Native American populations were forcibly removed, it was common practice—observed, for example, at the Baptist church that was the progenitor of my parents’ church in Macon, Georgia—for slaveholding whites to bring their slaves to church with them. Whites sat in the front, while enslaved blacks sat in the back or in specially constructed galleries above. This was a norm for centuries in white slaveholding Protestant churches, from frontier Baptists to highbrow Episcopalians. And this practice wasn’t limited to white Protestant churches. Urban Catholic parishes in major cities such as New York were, as late as the 1940s, still requiring black members to sit in the back pews and approach the altar last to receive the bread and wine of the Eucharist, oblivious to how this distorted the meaning of what was in theory a sacrament of Christian unity. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 75

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail that urban Catholic parishes as late as the 1940s made black members approach the altar last is a striking fact worth sending to someone interested in Catholic liturgical/racial history.
• XREF: connects to: Enslaved Africans physically seated in white churches shaped white Christianity’s theology and practice — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 76; White churches historically functioned as agents upholding racist social structures — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1055; White churches tolerated black presence in outreach roles but panicked at black worship participation — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 157 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Enslaved Africans physically seated in white churches shaped white Christianity’s theology and practice #expands (0.90) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 76
• Enslaved Africans’ church presence literally shaped white preaching and practice. #expands (0.90) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 76
• White churches historically functioned as agents upholding racist social structures #expands (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1055
• White churches tolerated black presence in outreach roles but panicked at black worship participation #expands (0.85) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 157
• White slaveholding Christianity subsidized and sanctified the slave trade. #corroborates (0.80) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 244
• National pro-civil-rights white church bodies concealed congregational white supremacy #expands (0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 185