While we were doing the site analysis for our design, I found out there were quite a number of churches within North Lawndale community. We marked out churches within North Lawndale in order to speculate if there were some potential spaces that we could use or share with churches to accommodate community activities. The interesting part is that the amount of churches is way beyond my expectation. I know that African Americans like to go to churches, but it is still a shock to me that almost every two or three Chicago Lots (Chicago lot 25’*125’) have a church in North Lawndale.
So why are churches so important to African American communities?
Let’s start with some demographics. A survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum shows that ”African Americans are more religious the U.S. population ad a whole with 87% affiliated to a religion…The population is mostly Christian, with 83% of black Americans identifying as Christian, including 45% who identifying as baptist. Catholic account for 5% of the population.”
Historically, Christianity became a way of coping with hardships for Africans in the colonial era. In some places, Africans were permitted to hold their own prayer meetings, which became the only space for them to socialize and speak freely. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, churches became safe havens for them to congregate. Besides, churches could also accommodate other events, it was a fusion of religion, ancestry, and social activities. In urban areas, churches served as places for scheduled prayer meetings, missionary societies, women's clubs, youth groups, public lectures, and musical concerts, some larger churches even had education programs.
The religious life of Black Americans "forms the foundation for their community life".
So it is no wonder that as a community whose residents are predominantly African Americans, North Lawndale has numerous churches. And as an important part of these residents' daily lives, churches could really be a breakthrough point for us to understand how to make these public spaces better. I think we are on the right track.
References:
1. Mark Nickens, ”Review” Church History (2008) 77#3 pp. 384
2. C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience
3. Howard N. Rabinowitz, Race Relations in the Urban South: 1865-1890 (1978), pp. 208-13
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