AS LEADERS ARE THE NEGRO PREACHERS A FAILURE
Also see on the same page, A DISGRACE TO THE NEGROES OF LOS ANGELES

AS LEADERS ARE THE NEGRO PREACHERS A FAILURE
Also see on the same page, A DISGRACE TO THE NEGROES OF LOS ANGELES

Are ministers misleading the Negro to only invest in churches? They are spending to build churches while being mistreated in hotels that they are failing to build for themselves to enjoy.

"Some years ago Booker T. Washington, the sage of Tuskegee, was credited with saying that the great body ot negro preachers were a detriment to their race. A study of the negro ministers of today reveals the same sad truth. We have contended all along that whatever the negro lacks of being what he ought to be is very largely if not wholly due to the bad leadership on the part of negro ministers. The race as a whole is absolutely in the hands of our ministers, the ministers very largely doing the thinking for it. From two to tour times each week they attend church and listen to the exhortation of the ministers, the ministers being the only men that can reach them from the platform, as they refuse to attend lectures other than those given by their preacher. What is true of the negro in this respect in the country at large is true of the negro In this city. He is absolutely in the hands of the preachers. The present chaotic condition of our people here shows that our local preachers either exercise no influence over their congregations or they do not lead them in the paths that lead to self-respect, unity and self-sup-port. Although we have four or five important churches in this city, all said to be churches of Jesus Christ and believers in the teachings of the Great Teacher, there is absolutely no unity among them or fellowship looking to the common advancement of the race."

Liberator, Volume VI, Number 2, 1 June 1904. California Digital Newspaper Collection. UCR Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research