The nearly 14 million people of color who live in rural America face unique challenges that run the gamut — from navigating racism in real estate, environmental regulation and the justice system to gaining access to healthcare and broadband. This six-part series from the Rural News Network, made possible with support from the Walton Family Foundation, explores the issues these communities are facing and what some are doing to change their fates.
(RNS) — In the riverfront city of New Bern, North Carolina, Peletah Ministries, like many houses of worship since COVID-19 struck, offers Sunday services to those who can’t get to church for health or other reasons. But in these days of Zoom and other internet-based communications, the stay-at-home congregants still dial in to the service via a conference call on the ministry’s toll-free 800 number — a landline.
“People still call it, and they still do church services that way,” said Dawn Baldwin Gibson, the ministry’s executive director. “They still do their Bible studies that way. A lot of people just don’t have devices in their homes, or they don’t have access to the internet.”
Early in the pandemic, Black churches often struggled to make the switch to remote services for lack of broadband in their area. Even if a church had the wherewithal to livestream services or hold meetings on video platforms, congregants lacked the connections to take advantage. A 2020 Pew Research Center study showed that while 92% of evangelical Christians and 86% of mainline Protestants could watch services online, only 73% of worshippers in the historically Black traditions said the same.
Today in the rural South, 38% of Black households do not have access to broadband, compared with 23% of white households, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Black clergy and faith leaders in the rural South have been working for years to bridge the digital divide in their communities and congregations, and a pandemic-era federal program gave those efforts a boost by offering discounted internet access. But fewer than half of the estimated 49 million Americans who are eligible have enrolled, and now questions loom about the program’s long-term funding by Congress.
The Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program offers discounted internet access and one-time discounts on laptop, desktop or tablet purchases. Any household whose income amounted to less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Line qualifies, as do those earning above that line but who receive any of a variety of public benefits. To date, more than 21 million households have enrolled in the program.
In North Carolina, the state’s Department of Information Technology has set a goal of enrolling 1 million state residents in the ACP by year’s end, said Cristalle H. Dickerson, spokesperson for the department’s Broadband and Digital Equity division. So far, more than 850,000 households have signed up.
To that end, it is partnering with faith-based organizations such as Peletah to get the word out. Other faith networks, including The Balm in Gilead and the National African American Clergy Network as well as national Black denominations are working on these efforts, which include pleas to members of Congress to replenish funding for the program, which could be depleted by early 2024.
Gov. Roy Cooper has also encouraged internet service providers in the state to lop an additional $30 from the monthly fees of individuals who qualify for the ACP.
In many areas, urban or rural, Black communities depend on their churches for more than spiritual uplift; members and nonmembers turn to local Black-led churches for everything from child care to medical services. During the pandemic, Black churches were crucial partners with government agencies in providing COVID-19 vaccines and testing.
Fallon Wilson, vice president for policy of the nonpartisan Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, said that the model forged in the pandemic can be replicated to bridge some of the gaps in digital access that were exposed in 2020.
