The Great Migration played a significant role in growing Detroit’s African American religious community. It’s also the focal point of a new PBS documentary series produced by Henry Louis Gates Jr. premiering on Jan. 28. The four-part docuseries explores the Black exodus to the North and the American West, with Detroit as a primary destination for many individuals and families.  

The Great Migration is known as the period between 1910 and 1970, beginning before World War I, continuing through the Great Depression and World War II, and spanning into the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. The historical event helped define some of America’s major cities, industries, music, food and politics. 

In conjunction with the series premiere, American Black Journal’s “Black Church in Detroit” series examines the church’s role and impact during the Great Migration. Host Stephen Henderson talks with Pastor Lawrence Rodgers of Second Baptist Church of Detroit and Elliott Hall, the historian for Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, about the Black church’s pivotal role in helping Southerners who migrated to Detroit.

They discuss the reasons why the migrants traveled North, how Black church memberships grew because of the influx of people, and how some migrants established new churches in Detroit. 

Atty. Hall talks about Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church’s founding by 20 families who migrated to the city from Georgia. He talks about the pastor who was recruited from Georgia to lead the church and how it developed over the years. Pastor Rodgers shares how his church provided spiritual support for the migrants and assisted them in obtaining housing and employment. He talks about how the pastor at that time, Rev. Robert Bradby, was friends with Henry Ford and was able to secure hundreds of jobs with the automaker.

Pastor Rodgers also talks about Rev. Bradby’s larger vision of transforming Detroit’s growing Black community through work, education and religious guidance. The group also discusses how the history and spirit of the Great Migration connects to the present-day mission of the Black church and the message it provides for today’s generation.