The term 'Black church' or 'African American church' refers to predominantly
Black Christian churches that minister to
Black communities in the United States. While some groups of Black churches, such as
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Churches, belong to predominantly Black
denominations, many Black churches are part of predominantly
White denominations.
[1] Historically, separate churches have enabled Blacks to worship in their own culturally distinct ways and assume positions of leadership denied to them in mainstream America. In addition, African American churches have served social welfare functions, such as providing for the indigent and establishing schools and orphanages.
History
To make them easier to control, American slave owners systematically stripped African slaves of their cultural heritage, including religion, sometimes passing laws prohibiting African religious practices. Despite these efforts, slaves managed to retain elements of their culture. In the context of religion, these elements included
call and response interactions, shouting, and dance.
[2]
Slavery
Slaves often learned about Christianity by attending services led by a White preacher or supervised by a White person. In such settings, Whites used
Bible stories such as the
Curse of Ham to justify slavery and promoted the idea that loyal and hard-working slaves would be rewarded in the after-life.
Slave revolts in the early
1800s, often inspired by other passages in the Bible or by Black preachers, led to laws barring Black churches and Black preachers. Slaves organized underground churches and hidden religious meetings, where slaves were free to mix
evangelical Christianity with African beliefs and African rhythms and turn traditional hymns into
spirituals. The underground churches provided psychological refuge from the White world, and the spirituals gave the church members a secret way to communicate and, in some cases, to plan rebellion. In
1831,
Nat Turner, a slave and a Baptist preacher, killed about 50 White men, women, and children in an armed rebellion in
Virginia.
[3]
Where it was possible, free Blacks organized independent Black churches
in response to racial discrimination.
Along with White churches opposed to slavery, they provided aid and comfort to escaping slaves.
[4]
"Wade in the water." Postcard of a river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina, near the turn of the 20th century. Such postcards were popular souvenirs of visits to the South until well into the 1940s.
Reconstruction
After
emancipation, Northern churches founded by free Blacks, as well as predominantly White denominations, sent missions to the South to minister to newly freed slaves. The AME and
AME Zion churches gained hundreds of thousands of members. In 1870, the Southern based
Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church was founded. The
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., now the largest Black religious organization in the
United States, was founded in 1894.
These churches blended elements from the underground churches with elements from freely established Black churches.
Despite early efforts to integrate freed slaves into American society, racial segregation quickly became the norm in many states, and Black community, with the Black church as its focal point, developed along lines partly independent of White community. Black preachers provided leadership, encouraged education and economic growth, and were often the primary link between the Black and White communities. The Black church established and/or maintained the first Black schools and encouraged community members to fund these schools and other public services.
Since the male hierarchy denied them opportunities for
ordination, middle-class women in the Black church organized
missionary societies to address social issues. These societies provided job training and reading education, worked for better living conditions, raised money for African missions, wrote religious periodicals, and promoted
Victorian ideals of womanhood, respectability, and racial uplift.
Civil Rights Movement
Black churches held a leadership role in the
American Civil Rights Movement. Their history as a focal point for the Black community and as a link between the Black and White worlds made them ideal for this purpose. Notable minister-activists included
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Ralph David Abernathy,
Bernard Lee,
Fred Shuttlesworth, and
C.T. Vivian.
[5]
Politics and social issues
The Black church continues to be a source of support for members of the African American community. When compared to American churches as a whole, Black churches tend to focus more on social issues such as
poverty,
gang violence,
drug use, and
racism. A study found that Black Christians were more likely to have heard about
health care reform from their pastors than White Christians.
[6] Black churches are typically very conservative on moral issues such as
homosexuality.
[7]
Historically Black denominations
Throughout U.S. history, racial segregation and religious preferences have fostered development of separate Black church denominations as well as Black churches within White denominations.
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Main articles: African Methodist Episcopal Church
The first of these churches was the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
Richard Allen was a former slave and an influential
deacon and elder at the integrated and affluent St. George's Methodist Church in
Philadelphia. In
1787, Allen founded the all-Black Mother Bethel AME Church after St. George's White members, increasingly uncomfortable with the large number of Blacks the charismatic Allen had attracted to the church, began relegating Black worshipers to the church balcony. Over time, growing numbers of African-American congregations withdrew from the
Methodist Episcopal (ME) Church. In
1816, representatives of these congregations convened to establish the AME Church, consecrating Allen as their bishop.
[8]
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
Main articles: African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion or AME Zion Church, like the AME Church, is an offshoot of the ME Church. Black members of the John Street Methodist Church of
New York City left to form their own church after several acts of overt discrimination. In
1796, Black Methodists asked the permission of the
bishop of the ME Church to meet independently, though still part of the ME Church and still led by White preachers. This AME Church group built Zion chapel in 1800 and became incorporated, subordinate to the ME Church, in 1801. In 1820, AME Zion Church members began further separation from the ME Church. By seeking to install Black preachers and elders, they created a debate over whether Blacks could be ministers. This debate ended in 1822 with the ordination of Abraham Thompson, Leven Smith, and
James Varick, the first superintendent (bishop) of the AME Zion church.
[9]
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
Main articles: National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
The National Baptist Convention was first organized in 1880 as the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention in
Montgomery,
Alabama. Its founders, including Elias Camp Morris, stressed the preaching of the
gospel as an answer to the shortcomings of a segregated church. In 1895, Morris moved to
Atlanta,
Georgia, and founded the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., as a merger of the Foreign Mission Convention, the American National Baptist Convention, and the Baptist National Education Convention.
[10] The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., is the largest African-American religious organization.
[11]
Church of God in Christ
Main articles: Church of God in Christ
In 1907,
Charles Harrison Mason formed the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) after his Baptist church expelled him. Mason was a member of the
Holiness Movement of the late 19th century. In 1906, he attended the Azusa Street Revival in
Los Angeles. Upon his return to
Tennessee, he began teaching the
Pentecostal Holiness message. However,
Charles Price Jones and J. A. Jeter of the Holiness movement disagreed with Mason's teachings on the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jones changed the name of his COGIC church to Church of Christ, Holiness (USA) in 1915. At a conference in
Memphis, Tennessee, Mason reorganized the Church of God in Christ as a Holiness Pentecostal body.
[12] The headquarters of COGIC is
Mason Temple in
Memphis, Tennessee. It is the site of
Martin Luther King's final sermon, "I've been to the Mountain Top," delivered the day before he was assassinated.
[13]
Other denominations
★
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
★
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.
★
Progressive National Baptist Convention
★
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America
★
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
★
African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection
★
Apostolic Faith Mission
★
Spiritual Israel Church and Its Army
★
United House of Prayer for All People
See also
★
African American culture
★
African American
★
Black Madonna, certain European depictions of a dark-skinned Virgin Mary
References
1. Pass It On: Outreach to Minority Communities, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, , Charyn D., Sutton, , 1992,
2. Religion and the Black Church, Abdul Alkalimat and Associates, , , Twenty-first Century Books and Publications, ,
3. The Church in the Southern Black Community
4. The Underground Railroad in Indiana
5. We Shall Overcome: The Players
6. The Diminishing Divide ... American Churches, American Politics
7. Gay Blacks Feeling Strained Church Ties
8. Africans in America: The Black Church
9. History of the A.M.E. Zion Church in America. Founded 1796, In the City of New York, , John Jamison, D.D, Moore, Teachers' Journal Office, 1884,
10. History of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
11. African American Religion, Pt. II: From the Civil War to the Great Migration, 1865-1920
12. The Story of Our Church
13. Chronology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
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