Scope and arrangement
The Black Church in the African American Experience project files consist primarily of completed questionnaires from interviews conducted with black clergy. The collection also contains research materials used in preparing the survey and writing the book, and analysis of the survey results in the form of handwritten notes and data printouts.
Surveys were conducted from 1979 to 1982. The questionnaires were filled out by field workers conducting the interviews, not by the clergy person. The questionnaires are divided between rural and urban churches, with some differences between the two surveys. Each survey represents a specific church; because some rural pastors served multiple churches, there are pastors who completed multiple surveys. Each church was assigned a unique number. The majority of the surveys used in the study are in this collection.
The main sections of the survey are "Demographic Profile" (of the interviewee); "History and Structure of the Church" (including questions about finances and the demographics of the congregation); "Black Consciousness" (how being part of a black denomination affects the church's programs, its mission, and the pastor's preaching); "Church Music"; and "Religious and Secular Activities and Programs." The questionnaire also contains questions about the relationship of young people to the church, and the role of women in the church.
Research materials offer a fragmentary record of the work that went into developing the study and the book. These materials include three surveys with pastors from Dutchess County, New York, conducted in 1978. These surveys were possibly field tests; they do not appear to have been used in the final study. The same file contains anonymous two-page surveys completed by church members in Dutchess County.
Other research materials in the collection include correspondence with church representatives from around the United States; lists of churches and clergy interviewed; and published material related to the history and demographics of African American denominations and of specific churches -- for example, meeting minutes and cemetery records of individual churches.
Analysis of survey results consist of notes and computer printouts containing comparisons of variables across denominations and between rural and urban churches. One way in which clergy responses were analyzed was on a "Black Consciousness Scale." The scale was devised by Mamiya and Lincoln to describe the degree to which clergy identified with African American social, intellectual, and political movements.
The collection contains one file related to Mamiya and Lincoln's subsequent project, "Islam in the African American Experience." The folder contains 2 letters engaging the services of consultants and describing the work they are being requested to do.