Regional Contrasts within Black Protestantism

This paper examines North/South contrasts in the determinants of church attendance and the association between attendance and asceticism among black Protestants. The analysis finds that social factors have a larger effect on attendance in the South, religious factors in the North. The association between attendance and ascetic moral values is also weaker in the South than in the North. Both patterns reflect historical regional variations within black Protestantism. Black American religion has contained important regional contrasts throughout its history. These contrasts first appeared in the late 1700s between northern churches founded by free blacks and the "invisible institution" of southern slave religion. They became most pronounced in the first half of the twentieth century, however, as vast numbers of southern blacks migrated to the North. There, black religion diverged sharply from traditional southern norms: the church's central role in black social life declined, rates of attendance fell, church affiliation grew more diverse, and black religion acquired a new worldly focus as black society became increasingly secular (Frazier 1974).