''I  am  glad  that  you  have  come  to  me,  because
I  can  show  you  an  up-to-date  and  proper
church,"  said  the  pastor.  "There  are  nine  or
ten  like  this  in  Norfolk,  but  when  a  stranger
arsks  to  see  a  Negro  church  he's  usually  taken  to
some  out-of-the-way  tabernacle  of  the  Holy
Polks  or  some  queer  sect  where  everyone  is
shouting  Hallelujah,  and  it  all  seems  very
funny.  But  if  you'll  come  to  me  on  Sunday
morning  you'll  hear  a  service  which  for  dig-
nity and  spiritual  comeliness  will  compare  with
any  white  man's  service  in  any  part  of  the
world.  You  mustn't  think  of  us  as  still  cotton
pickers  and  minstrels  and  nothing  more.  There
is  a  great  deal  of  Negro  wealth  and  refinement
in  this  city  of  Norfolk."

*  *  How  do  you  get  on  with  white  ministers  ? ' '
I  asked.  "Do  you  work  together?"


38        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN

''Oh,  white  ministers  do  not  recognize  black
ones  on  the  street,"  said  he.  "My  neighbor,  for
instance,  knows  me  well  enough  at  the  Baptist
Conference,  and  by  his  talk  I  see  he  knows  all
about  my  chnrch.  But  here  in  the  city  he  can-
not afford  to  know  me.  Yet  he  has  not  half  so
many  worshippers  at  his  church,  nor  do  they
pay  him  half  the  salary  which  my  people  pay
me.  He  dare  not  spend  on  his  clothes  what  I
spend;  he  has  not  such  a  well-appointed  home.
Yet  if  we  meet  on  the  street — he  doesn't  know
me.''

This  was  evidently  a  sore  point.
"We  went  to  Brown's  Bank.  Brown  has  gone
to  Philadelphia  to  start  a  second  Negro  bank.
The  first  one  has  been  in  existence  ten  years.
