Storefront Church Phenomenon (Black Chicago)

CTL-E-1404 · Practice · other · unspecified

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

The dominant form of Black religious organization in migration-era Chicago: small congregations meeting in rented commercial spaces, led by minimally credentialed clergy, serving Southern migrants alienated from old-line churches.

Notes

Merged into canonical KG 2026-10-03 from SCI-004; source entity IDs: CTL-DR-SCI-004:storefront-church-phenomenon; source research type(s): practice. Era not present in source research record(s); marked unspecified pending human review.

Sources

Benjamin E. Mays & Joseph W. Nicholson, The Negro's Church (1933), via Robert L. Boyd (1998)
Mays & Nicholson (1933) via Boyd (1998); Noreen, Names 13(1) (1965); Spear (1967)
Noreen (1965); Stronks (1962-64); Jordano (2009)
Robert L. Boyd, The Social Science Journal 35(3) (1998)

Record CTL-E-1404 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 4 sources · CTL research: SCI-004.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

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Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Storefront Church Phenomenon (Black Chicago) (CTL-E-1404),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1404/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Storefront Church Phenomenon (Black Chicago) (CTL-E-1404).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1404/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Storefront Church Phenomenon (Black Chicago) (CTL-E-1404) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1404/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Storefront Church Phenomenon (Black Chicago) (CTL-E-1404).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1404/

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From the Archive

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The sanctuaries and sacred ground this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

A greystone home converted to a church, South Side, Chicago, 1941Photo: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

A converted-storefront church with cars of the congregation, Chicago, 1941Photo: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Crowd outside of fashionable Negro church after Easter Sunday service, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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