It was early last Friday morning when Andrea Lawful-Sanders, an on-air personality at WURD Radio, witnessed dozens of cars waiting to get into the parking lot of the Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ.

People were waiting at the 6401 Ogontz Ave. church for COVID-19 tests administered by the Black Doctors COVID19 Consortium, which had organized yet another one of its free-of-charge community testing events. Lawful-Sanders was there to drop off face masks.

Two days later, the collective of Black doctors and pastors were back at it, this time offering testing for the disease caused by novel coronavirus at the West Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The pastor there, Nick Taliaferro, was first in line to get tested.

“They stick a swab so far down your nose, it almost feels like an enema,” Pastor Taliaferro said with a chuckle. “It was totally uncomfortable.”

When Pastor Taliaferro arrived at his Haverford Avenue church that Sunday at 8:30am, an hour and a half before testing began, he saw cars stretched from the parking lot gate on 46th street, down to nearly 44th street.

By 11:45am, about 100 people had been tested. It’s a scene that’s been replicated at Black churches across Philly.

“When times get dark, the church demonstrates its relevance. What you’re seeing now is the church, as it has always been in the Black community in particular, filling the place where government and social-economics fail,” Pastor Taliaferro said.

These churches have anchored the newly formed consortium’s efforts, making available their parking lots to test residents in underserved communities.

Miller Memorial Baptist Church in North Philly served as the launching pad for the urgent movement, led by pediatric surgeon Ala Stanford. Stanford, who has a private practice in Jenkintown and is also on staff at Abington-Jefferson Health, started testing people at the church on April 18, just as news of the coronavirus’ toll in the Black community began coming out.

Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Germantown hosted the outdoor effort two days later.

Black churches step up at ‘moment of crisis’

Dr. Stanford attends the historic Salem Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously preached a sermon in 1963. The church last year relocated to Roslyn from Jenkintown. The Rev. Marshall Mitchell of Salem Baptist said he and the doctor, who are friends, have talked about the health disparities among African Americans for years. When the coronavirus outbreak occurred, the two talked again on the subject and decided to act.

“Hundreds of churches have reached out to us, but I have to scout locations to make sure the churches have large parking lots,” said Rev. Mitchell. “One thing that makes these churches different from public school and supermarket parking lots is that these are all locations owned by Black people.”

Salem Baptist Church, located in a suburb where the population is less than 20,000, hasn’t hosted any testing. Nor are there any plans to do so. Rev. Mitchell said the team is “focused on where the disease” is and where help is most needed. And at the moment, that’s Philadelphia.

Carla Clarkson – a minister, hairstylist and member of Salem Baptist Church – was among the people on Sunday who volunteered in West Philadelphia. Clarkson, who told WHYY that she had been experiencing some flu-like symptoms, also got tested. She then revealed that two of her mentors – black women – had tested positive weeks ago, but both have since recovered.

African-Americans are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus, which to date has infected close to a million people in the United States; more than 55,000 of those cases proved fatal.

Of the total number of COVID-19 cases, 30% are Africans-American, according to the latest data from The Center for Disease Control. And the Associated Press reported that roughly a third of the U.S. COVID-19 fatalities are African American.

Though the racial data for the city and state is incomplete, the latest statistics show that African Americans make up 45% of the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Philadelphia, and 10% of total cases in Pennsylvania. Black people make up just 12% of the state’s population. More than half of the Philadelphians killed by COVID-19 were African American, according to city data.

“I know 35 people who have died from coronavirus,” said Rev. Mitchell. “None of them were white.”

Americans with premorbities, such as obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, are at a higher risk for contracting the coronavirus. However, these underlying conditions are more prevalent in Black communities.

Dr. Stanford told WHYY earlier this month that less access to health insurance, coupled with the fact that a big portion of Philadelphia’s working class, public-facing jobs are performed by African Americans, contribute to the disparity. That said, COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate between an individual with premorbities and another without.

“The coronavirus doesn’t care about your pulpit, purse, or power,” said Rev. Mitchell, who tested negative for COVID-19.

On April 23rd, Rev. Alyn E. Waller, pastor of the over 15,000-member Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, revealed that he tested positive for the coronavirus. Though not showing symptoms, Rev. Waller chose to get swabbed at a consortium testing event at Enon on April 20 to model behavior and emphasize the importance of testing. A photo in The Philadelphia Tribune shows Rev. Mitchell and Rev. Waller elbow bumping each other during that event. Rev Waller has no known pre-existing conditions.

“I applaud Pastor Waller because he made himself vulnerable. And one of the proudest traditions in the Black church is to make yourself vulnerable,” said Rev. Mitchell.

Rev. Malcolm Byrd, former director of the Mayor’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives, said Rev. Waller is courageous for both taking the test and disclosing his results. “It’s characteristic of him to accept the burden of leadership that says: ‘If I ask you to do it, I need to do it as well.’ ”

In a Facebook live broadcast, Rev. Waller said he hopes people will learn from his experience and “stay in unless you absolutely have to go out.” Pennsylvania’s stay-at home order is in effect until May 8th.

Upon learning of Rev. Waller’s diagnosis, a couple of pastors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, questioned whether the church was taking unnecessary risks by aiding the free testing. Pastors should leave the testing to the medical professionals, they said. But most local faith leaders and congregants overwhelmingly affirmed support of Black churches aiding doctors in testing for COVID-19. In fact, a prevailing sentiment was that the Black church has never been more relevant and required.

“The hospitals are overwhelmed and, if there’s a possibility that pastors can step up and assist the doctors, they should. The church is not just there for us to just lift holy hands,” said Lawful-Sanders.

Rev. Mitchell questioned: How could the church, and its leaders, not put itself at risk for the benefit of its people?

“This is a moment of crisis that could very well save the Black church in the mind of people everywhere, but only if the church understands the power of this moment,” said Rev. Mitchell.

Rev. Byrd – whose nonprofit organization has donated $2,000 to the consortium’s GoFundMe account – said it’s “most responsible for the pastors, who have the means to facilitate testing, to bridge the gap between the public health infrastructure and the community.”

As of April 27, the Black Doctors COVID-19 consortium has raised $89,928 of their stated goal of $100,000. According to Rev. Mitchell, each day of testing costs between $30,000 to $40,000. On average, roughly 300 people are tested per site, both Rev. Mitchell and Pastor Taliaferro confirmed. Monies donated are largely used to pay for tests; the doctors, pastors and laypeople are volunteering 100 percent of their time.