Standing at the Scratch Line

Mother Bethel AME Church: “Let This Be Your Home”

In the early 1900s more than half of Mother Bethel’s congregation had been born south of the Mason Dixon Line.  Because of changes in the surrounding blocks, however, Mother Bethel had been losing members. The influx of southerners during the First World War provided the church an opportunity to grow.  To attract members of southern A.M.E. churches to the mother church in Philadelphia, Mother Bethel established an Information Bureau, which sent flyers South inviting industrious men and women to come to Philadelphia where they would be welcomed “within her fold.” During the First Great Migration newcomers flooded into Mother Bethel, many of them bringing letters of transferal from their home churches in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  A native of Maryland, Reverend Robert J. Williams offered church services with music and an evangelical preaching style that appealed to the newcomers.  Setting up its own Reception Committee, Mother Bethel also joined other African American churches in efforts to “uplift” impoverished migrants and provide moral direction.