I he. L^hutrch and the /eop/e- 



T't^ote.^to.yit Foou.lo.ti on 



V/h'ite- Coloreci- 



DIAGRAM NO. IX 



itself is not so evenly distributed . The churches of course follow the distri- 

 bution of the population and most of them are in or near colored settlements. 

 There are 40 churches in all, one to every 231of the colored population. 



(b) Denominational Classification, Membership and Growth 



There are three denominations at work in the county, Baptist, 

 M. E. and A. M. E. Zion (Table No. 25, Appendix, page VII). The M. E. 

 Denomination has more than half of the churches. The total member- 

 ship of all churches is 1,981, only 21.2% of the population. The average 

 membership is 49.5. That is to say each church is reaching hardly more 

 than a fourth of its possible following. 



At almost every point the colored churches are much more inefficient 

 than the white churches. Not only have they a smaller proportion of 

 their population enrolled in the churches but their efforts at progress 

 are in comparison feeble. In 1906 the approximate membership of all 

 colored churches was 1,786. In six years there has been a net increase of 

 195 or 10.8% as against 28.2% for the white churches. During the last 

 church year the total number of additions was 153, of which one denomi- 

 nation had 147. This was a gross increase for the year of 8.3%. Only 

 15 of the 40 churches are growing at the present time; 10 are stationary; 

 10 are steadily losing ground, while 5 are unmistakably dying. These 

 churches all cling to life with a remarkably tenacious grip. They almost 

 never make an end of dying; yet very few of them have anything like 

 robust health. 



99 



