Early responses to a survey on PC(USA) anti-racism work

In 2020, the 224th General Assembly passed item 00-29, committing Presbyterians to engage in thoughtful activity surrounding the Church's history of racism. In 2022, the 225th General Assembly passed item RGJ-12, directing PC(USA) national agencies, churches and mid councils to take more concrete actions. In response, many churches and mid councils began work to research their histories, draft anti-racism policies, host reading groups, make pilgrimages, and raise funds for reparative justice. 

RGJ-12 directed the Presbyterian Historical Society "to create an online historical self-study tool for congregations and mid councils to investigate their own history" to better equip more churches and mid councils to undertake this work. In late 2025, the society published a survey to gather information from church leaders on their anti-racism activities, the challenges they are facing, and the resources they wish they had access to. Here are some of the things we have learned so far. 

Q: What was the catalyst for starting this work?

In the early responses to our survey, as one might expect, people indicated that their inspiration to engage in anti-racism work came from the Black Lives Matter Movement and other protest movements of the last decade — some simply referencing “Ferguson” or “George Floyd.” Others mentioned the Matthew 25 movement and the directives from the General Assembly or from their presbytery as being the catalyst for beginning this work.

Q: What is your work focused on?

Many respondents are conducting some type of historical research. Some are focusing on specific research questions, such as identifying ministers who were slaveholders, members who were enslaved, or determining how and why the church’s location was chosen. Accounting for the geographic location of the church was another theme, beginning with reckoning with settler-colonialism to accounting for how new church developments got placed in the burgeoning suburbs of the 20th century. One respondent described an ecological turn in their research, reminding us of the intersection of racism and environmental exploitation. 

Other popular activities include reading and study groups; drafting anti-racism policies and land acknowledgements; forming anti-racism committees; organizing DEI and anti-racism trainings, holding small-group discussions, including seeking out guest speakers; engaging the Intercultural Development Inventory; and embarking on field trips and pilgrimages. There were also groups who set up reparative justice funds and conducted oral histories with church members to fill historical gaps. Several respondents acknowledged that they had not embarked on any anti-racism work, either because they didn’t quite know where to begin or because they or their members disagreed with the premise of the work.

Q: What resources have you consulted?

The majority of respondents indicated that they utilized online resources (such as Ancestry, FamilySearch, and free online databases or digital newspaper archives) or secondary sources (such as published church histories). A few conducted primary source research via the Presbyterian Historical Society, Columbia Theological Seminary, or other local archives, libraries or historical societies. 

Q: What kinds of guidance, tools and resources do you wish you had access to while doing this work?

Responses to this question reveal that there is a lack of shared understanding about the scope, expectations, goals, and deliverables for this work as directed by the General Assembly. Many are struggling with how to begin or are overwhelmed by the process of conducting research when they do start. They aren't sure what types of records are available or relevant, where to look for them, or what questions to ask. People ask for "indexed databases," "digitized records," and "good quality finding aids," indicating a desire for paper records to be easily and remotely accessible in digital form and full-text searchable. (The hard truth is that only a tiny fraction of historical records will ever be accessible this way.) Some respondents ask for workshops, webinars, and research assistants to help with the time-consuming labor of reviewing pages upon pages of paper records and for guidance on interpreting them with a critical lens. A few mentioned needing help with encouraging their members to even engage in the work. One respondent said, “We need help getting white people to sustain their commitment to this work and feel urgency.”

Q: Did you set aside a budget for this work?

About a quarter of our earliest respondents indicated that they had some funding for work on an anti-racist historical study — whether that came from a minister’s discretionary fund, or a fund for reparative justice, or one for educational programming. Funding is important for sustaining the endeavor.  

PHS provides assistance to churches and mid councils who are conducting research through our reference and research services. Church leaders and members are also welcome to visit PHS to view and conduct research in their records. Digitization of church records is provided at a subsidized rate for PC(USA) entities. The PHS website has information about celebrating a church anniversary and writing a church history. 

Our Resources for Self-Study on Racism guide is in development and currently includes examples of self-study products produced by PC(USA) congregations as well as a few other published and audiovisual resources that groups may find helpful to their research.

PHS is continuing to develop resources that will serve our constituents, and we solicit your help in molding them. If your congregation or presbytery has engaged in anti-racist self-study, or is even curious about doing it, take a look at some of the examples of histories we’ve collected as part of the PC(USA) Self-Study on Racism digital collection, submit your own self-study product(s), and take a moment to add your voice to our survey.

Learn more

• Writing a Self-Study on Racism (2022, PHS blog post)
• PC(USA) Self-Study on Racism digital collection
• National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Environmental Racism — an ecumenical study guide (2010) https://pcusa.org/resource/environmental-racism-ecumenical-study-guide
• How To Look Up The History Of Your Home (2024) https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/property-history-how-to-look-up-the-history-of-your-home
• Who Lived in a House Like This? Building Research at The New York Public Library (2011) https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/10/14/guide-researching-your-homes-history
• PHS Live: Reckoning With The Past (2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgXuR13XfVY