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[[image - black & white photograph of a processional exiting church]]

[[caption]] AN EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH IN CHICAGO [[/caption]]

OUR NATION IS AT WAR.  This war will decide whether the Christian Church as an institution will survive.  This war will decide whether Negro Americans will have the right to continue their march to freedom or will sink into slavery.

There can be no question as to where anyone of us stands in this grave world crisis.  The democracy which the United Nations fight to preserve has its deep fountain in the principles of Jesus Christ. Our Nation is builded on Christian principles.  WE STAND BEHIND OUR NATION AND OUR PEOPLE FOR VICTORY OVER HITLER AND SLAVERY.

Because we know the great stake involved in this war, we have lost no time in throwing the full weight of the Negro church behind the task of mobilizing the Negro people for victory.  That is why we declared to the President of the United States on February 17, 1942:

"WE PLEDGE EVERY SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL RESOURCE AT OUR COMMAND IN SUPPORT OF OUR COUNTRY IN THE IDEALS OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY . . . "*

*From an address by the Rev. W. H. Jernagin, president of the Fraternal Council of Negro Churches of America