Assigned Seats in the Black Church

Know Where to Go to Save Your Soul

By Mark Wolfe — This image is from the FEMA Photo Library (obsolete as of 2019). An archived copy may be found at the Wayback Machine (note: link may be permanently dead, as not all photos were backed up in this way).If the FEMA link is permanently dead, the photo can be found at NARA Access to Archival Databases (only works if photo was taken between 1989 and October 2004), or at City-data.com., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8081676

Imagine walking up to a ticket booth outside a church, waiting in line to select your seat for the service you elected to attend. The more technologically advanced churches could allow seat selection online. You could show your e-ticket to an usher with a scan reader. While this sounds ridiculous, Black churches have an unwritten history of assigned seats that has existed throughout my lifetime.

Arrive early one Sunday and watch the sanctuary fill up. There will be no logical order, like from front to back or back to front. People have selected their seats over time and will return to the same seat each Sunday, provided no one has dared to sit in their place. Don’t think they won’t ask you to move either. No usher will rush up to settle the dispute like an airline flight attendant, but the offending party will generally recognize their violation and find another seat.

Some seats are reserved. While the pastor has a chair behind the pulpit, perhaps on the side. They may not sit there until a designated point in the program, perhaps just before giving the sermon. Until then, they may be seated in the front row. The choir will be in the choir stand behind the chairs for the preacher and their guests, which could include visiting pastors invited to sit on the stage. Some…