Sanctuaries on the Margins: What Storefront Churches Reveal About Racial Justice, Zoning, and American Democracy
by Alicea Williams-Peyton
Step into just about any Black neighborhood, and you’ll spot them—those little storefront churches squeezed in between barbershops and corner stores. They don’t always look like much from the outside, but for decades, they’ve been a lifeline. People come for the worship, sure, but also for the sense of belonging, for a place to organize, for a bit of hope when the world feels stacked against you.
Here’s the thing, though: what happens to these churches isn’t just about religion. It’s about who gets to belong, who gets pushed out, and who gets to call the shots in a community. I spent a good chunk of time digging into this for my research a few years back (I wrote a whole thesis on it in 2016), and honestly, the stuff I uncovered is still playing out today.
If you want to understand how democracy and belonging really work in America, look at the rules most people never think about—zoning laws, land-use boards, all those city codes. Storefront churches have been getting squeezed by these rules for generations. It’s nothing new. Back in my research days, I saw how these policies—on paper, neutral—ended up keeping Black pastors and their congregations out of certain neighborhoods or subjecting them to endless red tape (Williams-Peyton, 2016).
It’s wild how much hasn’t changed. These days, with gentrification picking up speed and property values soaring, a lot of these churches are feeling even more pressure. I heard from pastors just last year who are running into the same old obstacles: permit delays, surprise inspections, extra hoops to jump through—stuff that bigger, more established (and let’s be honest, usually whiter) congregations rarely have to deal with.
People love to say zoning is just about “the rules,” but it’s really about power. Who gets to gather, who gets to set the tone for a neighborhood, who gets to decide what’s welcome and what’s not? When you trace it all out, you realize this is bigger than religion or urban planning. It’s about whether we really mean it when we say everyone should have a seat at the table.
So yeah, I wrote about these patterns in 2016, and sometimes it feels like I could’ve written it yesterday. The faces and buildings change, but the fight—over dignity, over space, over whose voices count—keeps going.
If we care about real democracy and real community, we’ve got to pay attention to these churches. Protect them, listen to them, and remember that their story is tied up in all of ours. Because when we talk about who belongs, we’re really talking about what kind of country we want to be.
(And if you’re curious about the research, you can check out my full thesis here: https://doi.org/10.25846/9exx-sr19)
Alicea Williams-Peyton, PhD, is a peer-reviewed researcher and informational professional whose work explores the intersection of religion, social justice, and information systems. Her scholarship focuses on how faith-based communities collaborate, share information, and navigate the information divide, with particular attention to the role of libraries and other ideological institutions in shaping access and equity.