Regionalism, urbanism, and participation in the ministry: Blacks in the southern United States in the early twentieth century

Abstract

This study examines Blacks’ participation in the ministry in the U.S. South during the early twentieth century. Analyses of Census data reveal that the odds of southern Blacks’ participation in the ministry were exceptionally high. These odds were lowest in the hinterlands of the Deep South, where Blacks’ socioeconomic disadvantages were greatest, and highest in the South's largest cities, where Blacks had established urban communities. The results suggest that support for Blacks’ participation in the ministry was intensified by urbanism in the South's major cities.