[Racial Harmony in 1930:] You are Invited to Hear Dr. Frank D. Adams Minister, Universalist Church, Detroit on “The Art of Living To-Gether” [opening lines of broadside].

“No church can honestly call itself Christian while excluding Negroes”

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Small broadside announcing a public lecture by Universalist minister Dr. Frank D. Adams on the topic of “negroes joining white churches,” presented at Detroit’s East Elizabeth Street Y.M.C.A. in 1930.

The invitation, to both men and women, is accompanied by an illustration in the form of a newspaper clipping of the article “Negro Issue Church Test, Pastor Asserts” from the December 16, 1929 issue of the Detroit Free Press. In the article, Adams declared: “Unless it can be accepted that Christ’s principles and teachings were directed toward a particular class or race rather than all mankind, no church can honestly call itself Christian while excluding Negroes, foreigners or others from its membership…”

An unusual plea for racial and religious harmony in a Northern city in the aftermath of the Great Migration. From 1910 to 1930, Detroit’s African American population had risen about 20-fold, a demographic change which paralleled the city’s rising industrial and automotive prosperity and tensions among the races.

Price: $225.00