Researching Black churches using newspapers is quite tricky. Information from obituaries and weekly events are plentiful, but finding when a church’s name or location changes and consistent information on its development can be cumbersome. You have to notice patterns and think creatively.
This summer we are focused on the Maple Street Baptist Church and one of my research leads was Agnes Arney’s article series from 1930-1931 on Des Moines’ churches. Each feature included a picture and detailed the church’s “history, congregation, pastor, property value, and interesting incidents.” Her series was a site of public record keeping, making its digital archival deeply valuable. However, Maple Street Baptist was not included in Arney’s series, but it wasn’t due to limiting her coverage to white churches because Bethel A.M.E. and Corinthian Baptist had their own features.
Rather than searching by its name, I started searching for Maple Street Baptist’s reverends, looking through each entry to paint a picture of the church and its involvement with the community. While I have found crucial articles like “A perspective on race relations” and “130 attend classes in new wing,” I also uncovered unfortunate historical reverend drama. The “drama” is partially fueled by the cultural normative behavior surrounding which information is acceptable to share.
For example, previous pastor Reverend George Parrish’s house was broken into and some of his family’s belongings were stolen in 1947. But instead of vaguely sharing these details allowing for some anonymity, his house number and street name followed his name. The second sentence even included the stolen items: “watch, diamond ring, three pair of earrings, and a necklace.” Writers left no detail unimagined, providing so much information that his family may have been vulnerable to another robbery. Similarly, previous pastor Reverend S. Bates’ “star touring car” was stolen in 1924. The writers again listed his address with his name along with the names and addresses of the two culprits.
Through this research, I have come to realize that identifying people on the basis of where they live could implicitly indicate ‘status’ via racist and/or classist assumptions. Aside from concerns of privacy and normative conventions of the time period, these cues create distinction and almost explicitly acknowledge systemic violence associated by differentiating addresses. Despite inconsistent information, newspaper reporting can be quite thorough, but recognizing the (un)conscious bias in language is crucial to contextualizing Black churches through imperfect mediums.
Sources
- “Three Men Are Held on Auto Theft Charge,” Des Moines Tribune August 6, 1924 p 1
- “Minister’s Home Ransacked Here,” Des Moines Tribune May 14, 1947 p 13
- “130 attend classes in new wing,” Des Moines Tribune October 31, 1981 p 10
- “A perspective on race relations,” Des Moines Register May 8, 1985 p 64
- Agnes Arney’s Series on Des Moines Churches
- Des Moines Register October 13, 1930 p 13
- Des Moines Register October 20, 1930 p 13
- Des Moines Register November 17, 1930 p 11
- Des Moines Register November 24, 1930 p 11
- Des Moines Register December 1, 1930 p 11
- Des Moines Register December 22, 1930 p 11
- Des Moines Register December 29, 1930 p 10
- Des Moines Register January 12, 1931 p 14
- Des Moines Register January 26, 1931 p 15
- Des Moines Register March 9, 1931 p 15
- Des Moines Register March 23, 1931 p 14
- Des Moines Register April 20, 1931 p 3
- Des Moines Register April 27, 1931 p 15
- Des Moines Register May 11, 1931 p 15
- Des Moines Register May 25, 1931 p 2
- Des Moines Register June 1, 1931 p 2
- Des Moines Register June 15, 1931 p 15
- Des Moines Register July 20, 1931 p 11
- Des Moines Register July 27, 1931 p 10
- Des Moines Register August 3, 1931 p 11
- Des Moines Register August 10, 1931 p 11
