The Religious Life and Needs of Negro Students

Any discussion of the religious life of Negro students must include a statement as to the relation of these students to the church. It is safe to assume that a considerable majority of Negro students enrolled in high schools and colleges are members of some church. An analysis of the last Government Census of Bodies reveals that 73 per cent of all Negro women living in the United States 13 years of age and over have their names on the rolls of the church and that 46 per cent of all Negro males within the same age range are members of the church. Since this issue includes young people between the ages of 12 and 24, these percentages may be fairly applicable to the Negro students under discussion. If they should prove applicable, not less than 60 per cent of Negro students are church members. But student church membership is in all probability much higher. During the past twelve years, the writer has had wide contact with students in many colleges throughout the United States, serving as student secretary of the National Y.M.C.A., as leader in Religious Emphasis Week, and as college preacher. The conviction is that a vast majority of Negro students are church members-in some colleges over 90 per cent. Howard University may not be typical of Negro students generally, but since it is not a church school and since the Howard students cover such a wide area geographically, it is hardly unsafe to contend that no Negro college would have a lower percentage than Howard University when it comes to the students' church membership. An examination has just been made of the registration cards in the offices of the deans of men and women with a view of determining how many of the 1,271 undergraduates registered during the second semester 1939-1940 are church members. There are two questions on the registration card having to do with religion. The first asks for church preference, and the second asks for church membership. Tabulation is divided into four sections: those who state specifically their church affiliation, those who state only their church preference, those who left blank both questions having to do with church membership, and those who state specifically that they do not belong to the church. There were 1,167 of the 1,271 cards in the offices of the deans of men and women whose cards

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