The Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU)

Separate but Equal

The Episcopal Church treated African Americans as a problem: culturally and socially separated and inferior, but by baptism, full and equal members of the community. The Church tried to mend this breach by ministering to black Americans separately, consecrating bishops for “colored work”, funding black colleges, establishing black congregations, and operating a special office for “Negro work.” In short, the Episcopal Church fully embraced the American “separate but equal” construct of race relations. Overcoming this legacy would require the work of both whites and blacks. [Sources]