Black church

{{Short description|Christian congregations in the U.S. that minister predominantly to African Americans}} {{About|the collection of Black Christian congregations in the US|the Transylvanian Saxon cathedral in Brașov|Biserica Neagră|the church in Dublin|St Mary's, Dublin (chapel of ease)}} [[File:Bethel African American Episcopal Church Palatka04.jpg|thumb|Bethel AME Church in Palatka, Florida]] {{Protestantism}} {{African American topics sidebar|right|state=collapsed}}

The '''Black church''' (sometimes termed '''Black Christianity''' or '''African American Christianity''') is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that predominantly minister to, and are led by, African Americans,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gecewicz |first=Besheer Mohamed, Kiana Cox, Jeff Diamant and Claire |date=2021-02-16 |title=Faith Among Black Americans |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/faith-among-black-americans/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}</ref> as well as these churches' collective traditions and members.

Black churches primarily arose in the 19th century, during a time when race-based slavery and racial segregation were both commonly practiced in the United States. Black people generally searched for an area where they could independently express their faith, find leadership, and escape from inferior treatment in white-dominated churches.

Throughout many African American houses, churches reflect a deep cultural emphasis on community and shared spiritual experience<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lincoln |first1=C. Eric |title=The Black church in the African-American experience |last2=Mamiya |first2=Lawrence H. |date=1990 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-1057-0 |location=Durham}}</ref> providing an important cultural and historical significance that the African American community places on the act of gathering and the people themselves, rather than the location.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jacobsen |first=Douglas |date=June 2005 |title=Fortress Introduction to Black Church History. By Anne H. Pinn and Anthony B. Pinn. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2002. viii + 184 pp. $16.00 paper. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0009640700110674 |journal=Church History |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=416–417 |doi=10.1017/s0009640700110674 |issn=0009-6407|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The number of Black churches in the United States is substantial. According to the Pew Research Center in 2005, there were approximately 25,000 Black churches across the country, encompassing a wide range of denominations and independent congregations.<ref>{{Citation |last=Jones |first=Ida E. |title=Protestant Churches, Black |date=2005-05-19 |work=African American Studies Center |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.44357 |access-date=2024-09-03 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.44357 |isbn=978-0-19-530173-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A majority of African American congregations are affiliated with Protestant denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), or the National Baptist Convention and related churches, some of them are affiliated with predominantly white Protestant denominations such as the United Church of Christ (which developed from the Congregational Church of New England), integrated denominations such as the Church of God, others are independent congregations.<ref name="Alexander2011"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Pass It On: Outreach to Minority Communities, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America |last=Sutton |first=Charyn D. |year=1992 |url=http://www.energizeinc.com/art/apas.html}}</ref> There are also Black Catholic churches.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Parishes with a Strong Black Catholic Presence {{!}} USCCB |url=https://www.usccb.org/committees/african-american-affairs/parishes-strong-black-catholic-presence |access-date=2020-08-20 |website=www.usccb.org}}</ref>

In many major cities, Black and predominantly white churches often exist near each other; however, they remain segregated by race, a division which was shaped by deep historical, cultural, and social factors, including racism. During the eras of slavery and segregation, African Americans were largely excluded from white churches, which often upheld racial hierarchies and discrimination. This exclusion led to the creation of Black churches, which became vital spaces for community support, activism, and spiritual freedom.<ref name="Paris 266–268">{{Cite journal |last=Paris |first=Peter J. |date=July 1992 |title=The Black Church in the African American Experience ''By C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya'' Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1990. 519 pp. $18.95 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004057369204900218 |journal=Theology Today |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=266–268 |doi=10.1177/004057369204900218 |issn=0040-5736|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Rhys H. |last2=Emerson |first2=Michael O. |last3=Smith |first3=Christian |date=2004 |title=Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3712407 |journal=Sociology of Religion |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=178 |doi=10.2307/3712407 |jstor=3712407 |issn=1069-4404|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Even after formal segregation ended, white churches frequently resisted integration, preferring to maintain homogenous congregations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ownby |first=Ted |date=March 2006 |title=Freedom's Coming: Religious Culture and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era. By Harvey Paul. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. xvi + 338 pp. $34.95 cloth. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0009640700088697 |journal=Church History |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=219–221 |doi=10.1017/s0009640700088697 |issn=0009-6407|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Background == Most of the first Black congregations and churches which were formed before 1800 were founded by freedmen—for example, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Springfield Baptist Church (Augusta, Georgia); Petersburg, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia.<ref name="library.vcu.edu">[http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/vbha/gillmin.html "Gillfield Baptist Church, Petersburg, Virginia"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019021534/http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/vbha/gillmin.html |date=2008-10-19 }}, Virginia Commonwealth University Library, 2008, accessed 22 Dec 2008</ref> The oldest black Baptist church in Kentucky, and third oldest Black Baptist church in the United States, the First African Baptist Church, was founded about 1790 by the slave Peter Durrett.<ref name=Nutter>[http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/ky.fayette.fbc.black.lex.html H. E. Nutter, ''A Brief History of the First Baptist Church (black) Lexington, Kentucky''], 1940, accessed 22 Aug 2010</ref> The oldest Black Catholic church, St. Augustine in New Orleans, was founded by freedmen in 1841. However, Black religious orders such as the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore have existed since the 1820s.

After the American Civil War, many white Protestant ministers moved to the South to establish churches where both Black and white congregants could worship together.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195121285.001.0001 |title=Religion and the American Civil War |date=1998-11-05 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York, NY |doi=10.1093/oso/9780195121285.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-512128-5 |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Randall M |editor-last2=Stout |editor-first2=Harry S |editor-last3=Wilson |editor-first3=Charles Reagan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=2012 |title=A Lasting Legacy: James Edward O'Hara's Post-Reconstruction Struggle for Racial Equality |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798400617263.0028 |journal=Before Obama |pages=ii41–62 |doi=10.5040/9798400617263.0028|isbn=979-8-4006-1726-3 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, these efforts were often met with resistance, particularly from white Southerners who opposed racial integration. Despite these initial efforts toward inclusive worship, most integrated churches did not survive long due to racial tensions, societal segregation, and differing cultural and religious practices.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Isaiah |date=2023 |title=Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America by Randall Balmer (review) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/soh.2023.a909871 |journal=Journal of Southern History |volume=89 |issue=4 |pages=750–751 |doi=10.1353/soh.2023.a909871 |issn=2325-6893|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Over time, the Black church emerged as a vital and independent institution for African Americans, offering not only spiritual sustenance but also a space for community organization and social activism, distinct from the predominantly white congregations.

In Wesleyan-Holiness denominations such as the Church of God, the belief that "interracial worship was a sign of the true Church" was taught, with both white people and black people ministering regularly in Church of God congregations, which invited people of all races to worship there.<ref name="Alexander2011">{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Estrelda Y. |title=Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism |date=3 May 2011 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-2586-8 |page=82 }}</ref> In some parts of the country, such as New Orleans, Black and white Catholics had worshiped together for almost 150 years before the American Civil War—albeit without full equality and primarily under French and Spanish rule.

== History == {{main|History of African American Christianity}}

===Slavery=== {{main|African American Christianity during Slavery}} [[File:A Negro camp meeting in the South LCCN99614209.tif|thumb|African American churches during slavery were held in secret locations called hush harbors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wortham |first1=Robert |title=W. E. B. Du Bois and the Sociology of the Black Church and Religion, 1897–1914 |date=2017 |publisher=Lexington Books |page=153 |isbn=9781498530361 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=opY-DwAAQBAJ&q=voodooism}}</ref>]]

While some slaves arrived with prior exposure to Christianity—particularly Catholicism from the Congo—or Islam,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=DMin |first=H. C. Felder |date=2023-06-20 |title=Many Slaves Came to America as Christians |url=https://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com/post/many-slaves-came-to-america-as-christians |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=CFBU |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gecewicz |first=Besheer Mohamed, Kiana Cox, Jeff Diamant and Claire |date=2021-02-16 |title=10. A brief overview of Black religious history in the U.S. |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/a-brief-overview-of-black-religious-history-in-the-u-s/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}</ref> almost all first encountered Protestant Christianity in North America. Over time, African American Christianity became a distinctive form of Christian practice that combined evangelical teachings with African religious traditions, creating spiritual and communal spaces under conditions of slavery.

Early efforts at conversion were often led by Anglican missionaries and groups like the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, with limited success.{{sfn|Genovese|1974|p=169}} The First Great Awakening in the 18th century and the rise of Methodists and Baptists in the South brought evangelical preaching to slave communities, appealing to them through messages of spiritual equality and deliverance and offering some leadership roles<ref>{{cite book | last = Kidd | first = Thomas S. | title = The Great Awakening: A Brief History with Documents | publisher = Bedford/ St. Martin's | series = Bedford Series in History and Culture | date = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-312-45225-4 |page=19}}</ref> although in some congregations black worshippers could face restrictions and segregation. Nevertheless, clandestine gatherings known as hush harbors and the formation of "invisible churches" allowed slaves to worship freely,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/aarsecretmeetings.htm/ |title=On The Secret Religious Meetings of Enslaved Persons|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518013304/https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/aarsecretmeetings.htm/| archive-date=2012-05-18}}</ref> and adapt Christian teachings to their own experiences, and incorporate African rhythms and traditions into worship.

[[File:Mother Bethel AME Church Historical Marker 6th and Lombard Sts Philadelphia PA (DSC 3511).jpg|thumb|left|Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] By the early 19th century, African Americans established independent black churches and congregations, often led by freedmen, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church founded by Richard Allen in 1816.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-09 |title=Richard Allen and the Origins of the AME Church |url=https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2021/06/09/richard-allen/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Rediscovering Black History |language=en-US}}</ref> These churches became centers of resistance and community support, including being active in the underground railroad.

Christianity also played a complex role in the ideology of slavery: slaveholders used biblical passages to justify enslavement and enforce obedience, while slave preachers and communities drew upon biblical narratives like the Exodus for inspiration in seeking freedom and equality.{{sfn|Genovese|1974|pp=163-164}}

===Reconstruction=== {{See also|Reconstruction era}}

thumb|upright=1.35|Outside of a black church in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1935 After the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, the Black church emerged as a central institution in African American communities during the Reconstruction era. Northern denominations and free Black churches sent missionaries to the South to minister to freed people, offering religious instruction as well as education in literacy and civic life. Leaders like Bishop Daniel Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) organized widespread efforts to establish schools and congregations across the South. Within a year of the war's end, the AME Church added 50,000 new members, eventually expanding to over 250,000 congregants from Florida to Texas by the close of Reconstruction.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/daniel_payne.html "Daniel Payne"], ''This Far by Faith'', PBS.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/songsofzionafric0000camp_f3n0/page/215 James T. Campbell, ''Songs of Zion''], Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 53–54.</ref>

This period also saw the rise of other independent Black denominations. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church gained tens of thousands of Southern members, and in 1870 Black ministers in Tennessee founded the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (originally the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church), growing from 40,000 to over 67,000 members within three years.<ref name="docsouth.unc.edu">[http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html "The Church in the Southern Black Community"], University of North Carolina.</ref> At the same time, Black Baptist churches flourished, culminating in the 1895 formation of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., which unified three national African American conventions and became one of the largest Black religious organizations in the country.<ref name="doc south">{{cite web |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html |title=The Church in the Southern Black Community |last=Maffly-Kipp |first=Laurie F.|author1-link=Laurie Maffly-Kipp|date=May 2001 |access-date=2007-05-21}}</ref> Some smaller groups, like the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), emphasized interracial worship as a sign of spiritual unity, though they often faced hostility for their stance.<ref name="Alexander2011" />

The Black church quickly became the cornerstone of African American public life, fostering leadership, mutual aid societies, and schools while providing a space for autonomy beyond white oversight. Churches served as hubs for political organizing and community building, reflecting the strength of “invisible churches” from the slavery era. Middle-class Black women, denied ordination, played vital roles through missionary societies that promoted education, social welfare, and racial uplift.<ref name="doc south"/> These developments during Reconstruction cemented the Black church's role as a cultural, spiritual, and political anchor for African Americans in the post-emancipation United States.<ref>Peter Kolchin, ''American Slavery: 1619–1877'', Hill and Wang, 1994, p. 222.</ref>

===Twentieth century=== [[File:Ralph Abernathy.jpg|thumb|Ralph David Abernathy was a Baptist minister involved in the American Civil Rights Movement.]] {{See also|Civil rights movement|Black Power movement}} Black churches held a leadership role in the American civil rights movement. Their history as centers of strength for the black community made them natural leaders in this moral struggle. In addition they had often served as links between the black and white worlds. Notable minister-activists of the 1950s and 1960s included Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, Bernard Lee, Fred Shuttlesworth, Wyatt Tee Walker, C. T. Vivian,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/players.htm |title=We Shall Overcome: The Players |access-date=2007-05-29 |archive-date=2007-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607180155/http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/players.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3narr3.html "The Black Church", ''Brotherly Love'', Part 3: 1791–1831]</ref> and Fr. Ted Hesburgh, who would later be recruited by President Johnson to help craft the legislation that would later become the 1964 Civil Rights Act. During this movement, many African American Baptists split over using black churches as political centers alongside spiritual centers; this led to the formation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Meg |date=2009-03-29 |title=Progressive National Baptist Convention (1961- ) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/progressive-national-baptist-convention-inc-1961/ |access-date=2020-09-11 |website=BlackPast |language=en-US}}</ref>

After the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, by James Earl Ray, African American Catholics began organizing en masse, beginning with the clergy that April. A Black Catholic revolution soon broke out, fostering the integration of the traditions of the larger (Protestant) Black church into Black Catholic parishes. Soon there were organizations formed for Black religious sisters (1968), permanent deacons, seminarians, and a brand-new National Black Catholic Congress organization in 1987, reviving the late 19th-century iteration of the same. This era saw a massive increase in Black priests, and the first crop of Black bishops and archbishops.

== Black theology == {{Main|Black theology}}

One formalization of theology based on themes of black liberation is the black theology movement. Its origins can be traced to July 31, 1966, when an ''ad hoc'' group of 51 black pastors, calling themselves the National Committee of Negro Churchmen (NCNC), bought a full-page ad in ''The New York Times'' to publish their "Black Power Statement" which proposed a more aggressive approach to combating racism using the Bible for inspiration.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88552254&ft=1&f=1001 Barbara Bradley Hagerty, "A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology"], National Public Radio.</ref>

Black liberation theology was first systematized by James Cone and Dwight Hopkins. They are considered the leading theologians of this system of belief, although now there are many scholars who have contributed a great deal to the field. In 1969, Cone published the seminal work that laid the basis for black liberation theology, ''Black Theology and Black Power''. In the book, Cone asserted that not only was black power not alien to the Gospel, it was, in fact, the Gospel message for all of 20th century America.<ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120585801828545495?mod=fpa_mostpop Obama and His 'White Grandmother'] from '<nowiki/>'''The Wall Street Journal''''</ref><ref>Cornel West and Eddie S. Glaude, eds, ''African American Religious Thought: An Anthology'', 2003 {{ISBN|0-664-22459-8}}, p. 850.</ref>

In 2008, approximately one quarter of African-American churches followed a liberation theology.<ref>Powell, Michael. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/weekinreview/04powell.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 A Fiery Theology Under Fire]", ''The New York Times'', May 4, 2008.</ref> The theology was thrust into the national spotlight after a controversy arose related to preaching by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to then-Senator Barack Obama at Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago. Wright had built Trinity into a successful megachurch following the theology developed by Cone, who has said that he would "point to [Trinity] first" as an example of a church's embodying his message.<ref>[http://www.tucc.org/talking_points.htm TUCC Talking points] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080325005805/http://www.tucc.org/talking_points.htm|date=2008-03-25}}; see also [www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/31079.html Margaret Talev, "Obama's church pushes controversial doctrines"], ''McClatchy Newspapers'', March 20, 2008.</ref>

Scholars have seen parallels between the Black church and the 21st century Black Girl Magic movement, with social media interactions involving the Black Girl Magic hashtag seen as a modern extension of "[t]he Black church traditions of testimony, exhortation, improvisation, call and response, and song," which Black women can use to form a "cyber congregation."<ref name="Jackson">{{cite journal |last1=Jackson |first1=Carla Jean-McNeil |date=Spring 2020 |title=Hashtags and Hallelujahs: The Roles of #BlackGirlMagic Performance and Social Media in Spiritual #Formation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/48581555 |journal=Fire |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=98–131 |jstor=10.5323/48581555 |access-date=23 August 2021}}</ref>

=== Womanist theology === {{Main|Womanist theology}}

From the Black theology movement also came a more feminine form, in reaction to both the male-dominated nature of the field and the White-dominated nature of Feminist theology. Major figures in this reaction included Afro-Latino thinkers as well as Black women. Black Catholic womanists also played a major role, including Sr Jamie Phelps, OP, M. Shawn Copeland, and Diana L. Hayes.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

== Politics and social issues == The black church continues to be a source of support for members of the African American community, like encouragement to obtain immunizations.<ref name="National Black Church Initiative">{{Cite web |title=National Black Church Initiative |url=https://www.naltblackchurch.com |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=www.naltblackchurch.com}}</ref> When compared to American churches as a whole, predominantly African American churches tend to focus more on social issues such as poverty, gang violence, drug use, prison ministries and racism. A study in 1996 found that African American Christians were more likely to have heard about health care reform from their pastors than were white Christians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=126 |title=The Diminishing Divide ... American Churches, American Politics |date=June 25, 1996 |access-date=2007-05-16}}</ref> As of 2024, the National Black Church initiative had 27.7 million members in the United States.<ref name="National Black Church Initiative"/>

Most surveys indicate that while black people tend to vote Democratic in elections, members of traditionally African American churches are generally more socially conservative than white Protestants as a whole.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17057-2004Nov1.html |title=Gay Blacks Feeling Strained Church Ties |last=Fears |first=Darryl |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2004-11-02 |access-date=2007-05-16}}</ref> Same-sex marriage and other LGBT issues have been among the leading causes for activism in some black churches;<ref>Jeffrey S. Siker, ''Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia'', 2007, p. 49.</ref> though a majority of black Protestants remained opposed to same-sex marriage as of 2015,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.pewforum.org/2014/09/24/graphics-slideshow-changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/|access-date = 4 November 2015|title = Changing Attitudes on Gay Marriage| work=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |date = 29 July 2015}}</ref> support grew to a majority of both black Protestant and black Catholic respondents in later surveys.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 26, 2017 |title=Support for Same-Sex Marriage Grows, Even Among Groups That Had Been Skeptical |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/06/26/support-for-same-sex-marriage-grows-even-among-groups-that-had-been-skeptical/ |access-date=June 17, 2024 |work=Pew Research Center}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Avery |first=Dan |date=October 21, 2020 |title=Support for gay marriage reaches all-time high, survey finds |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/support-gay-marriage-reaches-all-time-high-survey-finds-n1244143 |access-date=June 17, 2024 |work=NBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shine |first=Robert |date=March 18, 2022 |title=New Report: Majorities of Black Catholics Affirm Gay People and Same-Gender Marriages |url=https://www.newwaysministry.org/2022/03/18/new-report-majorities-of-black-catholics-affirm-gay-people-and-same-gender-marriages/ |access-date=June 17, 2024 |work=New Ways Ministry}}</ref> Nevertheless, some denominations have been discussing this issue. For example, the African Methodist Episcopal Church prohibits its ministers from officiating same-sex weddings, but it does not have a clear policy on ordination.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hahn|first1=Heather|title=Gay pastor's removal brings sadness, defiance|url=http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/gay-pastors-removal-brings-sadness-defiance|website=www.umc.org|publisher=United Methodist Church|access-date=November 26, 2015|archive-date=April 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424231616/http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/gay-pastors-removal-brings-sadness-defiance|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Some African American clergy have not accepted same-sex marriage. A group known as the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP), maintains their opposition to gay marriage. The CAAP president, Reverend William Owens Sr., asserts that the marriage equality act will cause corruption within the United States. The organization insists that a real union is between a man and a woman. They also believe that the law prohibiting gay marriage should have been upheld. Other African American religious leaders that echoed Owens' position were Bishop Janice Hollis, presiding prelate for Covenant International Fellowship of Churches in Philadelphia; Bishop Charles G. Nauden of Holyway Church of God in Christ of Southern California; and the Reverend Dean Nelson, vice chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Gryboski |first1=Michael |last2=Editor |first2=Mainline Church |date=2012-08-01 |title=Black Pastor: Gay Marriage Issue Will Increase in Importance in November Election |url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/black-pastor-gay-marriage-issue-will-increase-in-importance-in-november-election.html |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=www.christianpost.com |language=en}}</ref> The CAAP members agree that the Supreme Court had no right to overturn the constitutional ruling.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Baptiste|first1=Nathalie|title=What Some Black Church Leaders Have Wrong About Gay Marriage – and Civil Rights|url=http://prospect.org/article/what-some-black-church-leaders-have-wrong-about-gay-marriage-and-civil-rights/|website=The American Prospect|date=3 July 2015|publisher=Prospect|access-date=14 March 2017}}</ref>

==As neighborhood institutions== Although black urban neighborhoods in cities that have deindustrialized may have suffered from civic disinvestment,<ref>''[https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fjurban%2F78.1.72 Root shock: The consequences of African American dispossession]'', ''Journal of Urban Health''. New York: Springer. Volume 78, Number 1 / March 2001.</ref> with lower quality schools, less effective policing<ref>Douglas A. Smith, "The Neighborhood Context of Police Behavior", ''Crime and Justice'', Vol. 8, Communities and Crime (1986), pp. 313–41.</ref> and fire protection, there are institutions that help to improve the physical and social capital of black neighborhoods. In black neighborhoods the churches may be important sources of social cohesion.<ref>Mary Pattillo-McCoy, "Church Culture as a Strategy of Action in the Black Community", ''American Sociological Review'', Vol. 63, No. 6 (December 1998), pp. 767–84.</ref> For some African Americans the kind of spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of poverty and racism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arnold |first1=Bruce Makoto |title=Shepherding a Flock of Different Fleece: A Historical and Social Analysis of the Unique Attributes of the African American Pastoral Caregiver |journal=Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling |date=June 2012 |volume=66 |issue=2 |page=2 |doi=10.1177/154230501206600202 |pmid=23045903 |s2cid=31892039 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1432041}}</ref><ref>Wendy L. Haight, "'Gathering the Spirit' at First Baptist Church: Spirituality as a Protective Factor in the Lives of African American Children", ''Social Work'', Vol. 43, 1998.</ref>

Churches may also do work to improve the physical infrastructure of the neighborhood. Churches in Harlem have undertaken real estate ventures and renovated burnt-out and abandoned brownstones to create new housing for residents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adcorp.org/|title=Abyssinian Development Corporation}}</ref> Churches have fought for the right to operate their own schools in place of the often inadequate public schools found in many black neighborhoods.<ref>[http://www.observer.com/2007/charter-lawsuit Azi Paybarah, "A Harlem Church Sues to Operate Charter School] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121131156/http://www.observer.com/2007/charter-lawsuit |date=January 21, 2008 }}", October 25, 2007.</ref>

==Traditions== Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. ''Black Nativity'' by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found at black theaters and churches all over the country.<ref>[http://www.intiman.org/2007season/nativity.html Black Nativity] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109055932/http://www.intiman.org/2007season/nativity.html |date=2008-01-09 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.ncaaa.org/nativity.html Black Nativity] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009075118/http://www.ncaaa.org/nativity.html |date=2007-10-09 }}</ref> The Three Wise Men are typically played by prominent members of the black community.

The watchnight service held on New Year's Eve in many Christian denominations, especially those of the Methodist and Moravian traditions, is widely attended by African American Christians.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harrell |first1=Joan R. |title=Watch Night Service In The Black Church In America: 150 Years After The Emancipation Proclamation |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/watch-night-service-in-the-black-church-in-america-150-years-_b_2389965 |work=The Huffington Post |access-date=2 January 2021 |date=31 December 2012}}</ref>

==Denominations== Throughout U.S. history, religious preferences and racial segregation have fostered development of separate black church denominations, as well as black churches within white denominations.

===Methodism (inclusive of the holiness movement)=== African Americans were drawn to Methodism due to the father of Methodism, John Wesley's "opposition to the whole system of slavery, his commitment to Jesus Christ, and the evangelical appeal to the suffering and the oppressed."<ref name="Costen2004">{{cite book |last1=Costen |first1=Melva Wilson |title=In Spirit and in Truth: The Music of African American Worship |date=1 January 2004 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-22864-4 |page=57 }}</ref>

====African Methodist Episcopal Church==== {{Main|African Methodist Episcopal Church}}

thumb|Richard Allen The first of these churches was the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In the late 18th century, former slave Richard Allen, a Methodist preacher, was an influential deacon and elder at the integrated and affluent St. George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia. The charismatic Allen had attracted numerous new black members to St. George's. White members had become so uncomfortable that they relegated black worshipers to a segregated gallery. After white members of St. George's started to treat his people as second-class citizens, in 1787 Allen, Absalom Jones, also a preacher; and other black members left St. George's.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Absalom Jones and the Insufficiently Progressive {{!}} Notes and News |url=https://stbarts.org/notes-and-news/absalom-jones-and-the-insufficiently-progressive/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=St. Bart's }}</ref>

They first established the non-denominational Free African Society, which acted as a mutual aid society. Religious differences caused Jones to take numerous followers to create an Episcopal congregation. They established the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, which opened its doors in 1794. Absalom Jones was later ordained by the bishop of the Philadelphia diocese as the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Story of The Rev. Absalom Jones |url=https://utsnyc.edu/event/the-story-of-the-rev-absalom-jones/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=Union Theological Seminary }}</ref>

Allen continued for some years within the Methodist denomination but organized a black congregation. By 1794 he and his followers opened the doors of the Mother Bethel AME Church.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-12-23 |title=Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church [Philadelphia] (1794- ) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mother-bethel-african-methodist-episcopal-ame-church-1794/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=BlackPast }}</ref>

Over time, Allen and others sought more independence from white supervision within the Methodist Church. In 1816 Allen gathered four other black congregations together in the mid-Atlantic region to establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church as an independent denomination, the first fully independent black denomination. The ministers consecrated Allen as their first bishop.<ref name="ame">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3narr3.html |title=Africans in America: The Black Church |website=PBS |access-date=2007-05-21}}</ref>

====African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church==== {{Main|African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church}}

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion or AME Zion Church, like the AME Church, is an offshoot of the Methodist Episcopal 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 by white members. In 1796, Black Methodists asked the permission of the bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church to meet independently, though still to be part of that church and led by white preachers. This AME Church group built Zion chapel in 1800 and became incorporated in 1801, still subordinate to the Methodist Episcopal Church.<ref name="Moore 1884">{{cite book |title=History of the A.M.E. Zion Church in America. Founded 1796, In the City of New York |last=Moore |first=John Jamison, D.D |location=York, Pa |year=1884 |publisher=Teachers' Journal Office |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/moorej/moore.html}}</ref>

In 1820, AME Zion Church members began further separation from the Methodist Episcopal Church. By seeking to install black preachers and elders, they created a debate over whether black people 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. After the American Civil War, the denomination sent missionaries to the South and attracted thousands of new members, who shaped the church.<ref name="Moore 1884"/>

====Other Methodist-Holiness connexions==== *African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection *Christian Methodist Episcopal Church *Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. *Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church

===Baptists=== ====National Baptist Convention, USA==== {{Main|National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.}}

The National Baptist Convention of the United States of America 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalbaptist.com/Index.cfm?FuseAction=Page&PageID=1000082 |title=History of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. |access-date=2007-05-29 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070106010417/http://www.nationalbaptist.com/Index.cfm?FuseAction=Page&PageID=1000082 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-01-06}}</ref>

====Other Baptist denominations==== *Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship *National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc. *National Missionary Baptist Convention of America *Progressive National Baptist Convention

===Pentecostalism=== ====Church of God in Christ==== {{Main|Church of God in Christ}}

In 1907, Charles Harrison Mason formed the Church of God in Christ after his Baptist church and the Mississippi Convention of the NBC USA 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 Holiness Pentecostal message. However, Charles Price Jones and J. A. Jeter of the Wesleyan Holiness movement disagreed with Mason's teachings on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Jones changed the name of his COGIC church to the 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cogic.org/history.htm|title=The Story of Our Church |access-date=2007-05-22 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070513023650/http://www.cogic.org/history.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-05-13}}</ref> 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 Mountaintop", delivered the day before he was assassinated.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/chronology.html |title=Chronology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr |access-date=2007-05-22 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070502175618/http://www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/chronology.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-05-02}}</ref>

====Other Pentecostal denominations==== [[File:WORSHIPPERS AT HOLY ANGEL CATHOLIC CHURCH ON CHICAGO'S SOUTH SIDE. IT IS THE CITY'S LARGEST BLACK CATHOLIC CHURCH.... - NARA - 556238.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|Worshippers at Holy Angels Catholic Church on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, by John H. White, 1973]] <!--Note: This is a *representative* list. It is not meant to contain every black denomination.--> *United Holy Church of America *Apostolic Faith Mission *Apostolic Faith Mission Church of God *Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith *Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas *Mount Sinai Holy Church of America *Pentecostal Assemblies of the World *United House of Prayer for All People *United Pentecostal Council of the Assemblies of God, Incorporated

=== Black Catholicism === {{Main|Black Catholicism}}

Birthed from pre-U.S. communities in New Orleans, Baltimore, and Florida, among others, the presence of African American Catholics in the United States territories constitute some of the earliest Black communities on the entire continent. Beginning in the early 19th century, Black Catholic religious sisters began forming congregations to serve their communities, beginning with Mary Elizabeth Lange and Henriette DeLille, who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence and Sisters of the Holy Family, respectively. They were soon followed by the emergence of openly Black priests, the first being Fr Augustus Tolton in 1886.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The Society of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (aka the Josephites), a group of priests tasked with serving African-Americans specifically, were formed in 1893 and began ordaining Black men immediately—though in small numbers. They staffed and formed Black parishes throughout the country, and today continue to serve in the same way (as do the two aforementioned sisterhoods, as well as the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary).{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

After the Civil Rights Movement, various new Black Catholic organizations were founded for Black priests, sisters, deacons, and seminarians, and the National Black Catholic Congress arrived in 1987. African-American Catholic priests greatly increased in number and African-American bishops began being appointed, including archbishops.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Wilton Gregory, the first African American cardinal, was named in 2020.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/world/archbishop-wilton-gregory-cardinal/index.html | title=This archbishop has become the first African American cardinal in Catholic history | website=CNN | date=27 November 2020 }}</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|United States|Christianity|Religion}} * African diaspora religions * Atheism in the African diaspora * Black sermonic tradition * Black theology * Louisiana Black church fires * Our Lady of Ferguson * Our Mother of Africa Chapel * Traditional Black gospel

'''General:''' * Racial segregation of churches in the United States * Religion in Black America<ref>{{cite web|last1=Baptiste|first1=Nathalie|title=What Some Black Church Leaders Have Wrong About Gay Marriage – and Civil Rights|url=http://prospect.org/article/what-some-black-church-leaders-have-wrong-about-gay-marriage-and-civil-rights//|website=The American Prospect|date=3 July 2015|access-date=14 March 2017}}</ref> * Religious discrimination in the United States

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading == {{main|Religion in Black America#Further reading}}

*{{cite book| title = Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made | year = 1974|first=Eugene|last=Genovese}} *Gilton, Donna.(1993). "This far by faith: Resources of the African-American Church. The Alert Collector Column. ''RQ'' 32: No. 4 (Summer): pp.&nbsp;468–484. *{{Cite book |author-link=Albert J. Raboteau|last=Raboteau |first=Albert J. |title=Slave religion: the "invisible institution" in the antebellum South |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517413-7 |edition=Updated |location=Oxford; New York}} * {{cite thesis|last=Travis|first=Jamal Chanse|title=The Political Power Of The Black Church|type=PhD dissertation|publisher=University of Mississippi|date=August 2015 |url=https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/788}}

== External links == * [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/faith-among-black-americans/ Faith Among Black Americans] * [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/01/30/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/ A Religious Portrait of African-Americans]

{{Black church}} {{Afro-American Religions}} {{African American topics}} {{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Church}} Category:Historically African-American Christian denominations Category:African-American Christianity Church Category:Christian terminology