# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S418
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS

Report of the Missionary Board of the
Synodical Conference
(Report 416)
NEGRO MISSIONS
United States

When the Synodical Conference convention in 1877 adopted
the resolution “to conduct conjointly a mission among the colored
people of the United States,” the Conference entrusted the man-
agement and supervision of this joint enterprise to a duly elected
Missionary Board. For sixty-nine years this Board directed all
the affairs of the mission.

In 1946 the Synodical Conference decided to change the entire
domestic mission setup by appealing to the constituent synods of
the Conference “to take over the work among the Negroes in their
territorial area.” .

This appeal met with favor among practically all the synods
and Districts of the Synodical Conference. All but two Districts
of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod have now assumed
complete supervision of Negro Missions in their midst. Quite
a number of Districts have also assumed all financial obligations.
Negro churches have been integrated into the Districts in which
they are located. In two Districts Regional Mission Committees
have been established, and in the course of time these Districts
will undoubtedly merge Negro Mission work with their own
existing mission setup.

It is apparent that funds are still needed to support the work
of Negro Missions fully or in part throughout the United States
for existing work and for expansion of the work in those sections
of our country where opportunities are beckoning us at the present
time. Full support must be given for expansion in the Southern
States. In Alabama we find three strategic urban centers which
merit our prayerful attention, viz., Tuskegee, where an important
Negro institute with an enrollment of over three thousand young
men and women is located; Montgomery, the capital of Alabama,

where some fifty thousand Negroes reside; Bessemer, a suburb of
Birmingham, with a Negro population of some thirty thousand.
Small beginnings have been made in the above centers; however,
it is necessary during the next five years to set aside some one
hundred thousand dollars for adequate chapel-schools.

In the entire State of Georgia we have only one Lutheran
congregation. Cities like Savannah and Augusta offer opportunities
for the establishment of Lutheran congregations. In South Carolina