A Study of the Personnel, Status, and Educational Activities of the Negro Ministers of Dallas, Texas

Author

Clarence Henry Sanders, Prairie View A&M College

Date of Award

8-1948

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Discipline

Education

Abstract

The lack of seminary training is a definite handicap to a minister. In fact, upper and middle class Negroes depreciate the uneducated Negro preacher. Therefore, since they depreciate the common, uneducated Negro preacher, he is loosing his influence in the community. Ministerial candidates should also have an acquaintance with the social sciences and the problems of the family and the home. This is more desired than a head full of technical theology. The writer is of the opinion that the ministers who graduate from seminaries today show too little evidence of a good, thorough knowledge or understanding of human relations. This study was initiated in the hope of presenting data which will throw light on the progress the Negro preacher has made along educational, economical, and religious lines—how much academic and theological equipment he has, and the interest he manifests in civic and community organizations.

This is a local study of the city of Dallas, Texas designed to analyze the personnel status of Negro ministers who have been ordained and commissioned to preach the Gospel by their particular churches. In making use of the census material of 1940 for this purpose, there are one hundred and twenty-five Negro ministers in Dallas, Texas.¹ One must bear in mind that these figures are most conservative. The census enumerators classify a pastor as a clerguman only if the major part of his income is derived from the church. Obviously this method excludes ministers who are pastors of churches but whose income is received primarily from other sources.

The data presented in this study were selected in such a fashion that the sample may be considered fairly representive of the entire Negro clergy of Dallas, Texas. The chronological scope of this study covered not more than thirty days.

^1. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940 Population Vol. III. P.494.

Committee Chair/Advisor

J. M. Drew

Publisher

Prairie View A&M College

Rights

Date of Digitization

9-10-2021

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Sanders, C. H. (1948). A Study of the Personnel, Status, and Educational Activities of the Negro Ministers of Dallas, Texas. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/397