Race and Religion in Indianapolis

Abstract

At about 22 percent, Indianapolis has a typical proportion of African-Americans for a city of its size. The city has been and continues to be composed primarily of a white majority and a significant black minority. Given the city’s history of formal segregation and Ku Klux Klan activity, racial differences are cast in rather stark relief—in religion as in other matters. In response to a Polis Center survey, Indianapolis pastors most often identified racism as the civic problem the religious community needed to confront. Most faiths promote the equality and fraternity of all believers, yet in practice religious congregations are among the most segregated of institutions. An article in this issue examines the history of the Pentecostal movement and race. Another looks at Celebration of Hope, a local effort at interfaith worship.