Storefront Places of Worship | Black Churches | Shaw and Washington, D.C.

Storefront Places of Worship

PBS: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly: Inner City Churches on the Move
Church leaders, academics and parishioners discuss how suburban migration has impacted inner city church communities.

Simple Places of Divine Worship: Storefront Churches in Washington, D.C.
View black-and-white pictures of storefront churches in Washington, D.C. neighborhoods, taken by Gerald Campbell.

Brooklyn Storefront Houses of Worship Album
Browse photos of storefront churches in Brooklyn, New York from photographer Rudy Grahn, Jr.

Feeling the Spirit: Faith and Hope in an Evangelical Black Storefront Church
By Frances Kostarelos
(University of South Carolina Press, 1995)
A profile of the First Corinthians Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, this book also reveals the role of religion and the storefront church in African American communities.

Come Sunday
By Thomas Roma
(Museum of Modern Art, 1996)
Photographer Roma’s limited edition collection of pictures of storefront church services in Brooklyn served as an inspiration and companion piece to LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN. With an essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Sanctuary
By Thomas Roma
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002)
Roma offers a compelling sequence of 52 black-and-white images that document the varieties of religious experience in Brooklyn as seen in the borough's sacred architecture.

Black Churches

The Reader’s Companion to American History: Black Churches
Learn more about the history of black churches in the U.S. from the 1700s through the 20th century in this site from Houghton Mifflin.

The History of Jim Crow: Surviving Jim Crow
Find out about ways blacks survived in the severe segregation of the Jim Crow South, including using the black church as a source of refuge and respect.

Fly Away: The Great Migration
Learn about the impact that the African American “great migration” had on black churches in the North and the South.

PBS: This Far by Faith
This dramatic storytelling series examines the African American religious experience through the last three centuries and the connections between faith and cultural values. Get profiles, a timeline and more.

PBS: Africans in America: The Black Church
Find information and links about early black churches in America.

Shaw and Washington, D.C.

ShawDC.com
Get local news, city services information and a business directory for the neighborhood featured in LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN.

In Shaw
This Shaw resident’s site features info on neighborhood history and daily life. Read the daily blog, which discusses the Shaw’s gentrification, its transitional east side, local restaurants, community events and more.

PBS: Duke Ellington’s Washington: Virtual Tour of Shaw
This virtual neighborhood tour of jazz legend Duke Ellington’s old stomping grounds leads you through landmarks such as historic theaters, restaurants, schools and businesses.

Cardozo-Shaw Neighborhood Association
This organization is “instrumental in bringing new businesses, addressing crime problems, and creating partnerships with schools, churches, businesses and other community organizations to enhance the community.”

Black America’s First Cultural Capital
Read or listen to an interview with several Shaw historians and natives, who talk about the neighborhood’s heyday and resurgence.

D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute: Income Inequality in the District of Columbia is Wider Than in Any Major U.S. City
Read this 2004 report, which discusses the shocking economic gap in Washington, D.C.: the average income of the top fifth of D.C. households was 31 times higher than that of the bottom fifth.

Poor People and Poor Neighborhoods in the Washington Metropolitan Area
This 1997 study looks at socioeconomic conditions in the D.C. area and examines how the city’s poorest areas are changing.