![Women in a service, Sixth avenue Baptist Church](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Women_in_a_service%2C_Sixth_avenue_Baptist_Church.jpg)
Religion of black Americans refers to the religious and spiritual practices of
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
. Historians generally agree that the religious life of black Americans "forms the foundation of their community life". Before 1775 there was scattered evidence of organized religion among black people in the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
. The
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
and
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
churches became much more active in the 1780s. Their growth was quite rapid for the next 150 years, until their membership included the majority of black Americans.
After
Emancipation
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchis ...
in 1863,
Freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...
organized their own churches, chiefly Baptist, followed by Methodists. Other
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
denominations, and the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, played smaller roles. In the 19th century, the
Wesleyan-Holiness movement
The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. The movement is historically distinguished by its empha ...
, which emerged in Methodism, as well as
Holiness Pentecostalism
Christian perfection is the name given to theological concepts within some sects of Christianity that purport to describe a process of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by ...
in the 20th century were important, and later the
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
. The
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African ...
and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (also known as
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
) added a
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
factor in the 20th century. Powerful
pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
s often played prominent roles in politics, often through their leadership in the American
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
, as typified by
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
,
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
and
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
.
Religious demographics
The vast majority of
Black Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
are
Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
, with descendants of
American chattel slavery being largely
Baptists
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
or adhering to other forms of
Evangelical Protestantism
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experi ...
. A 2007 Pew Research survey found that African-Americans were more religious than the U.S. population as a whole. 87% of African Americans were affiliated with a religion, compared with 83% of the wider population. 79% of African Americans stated that "religion is very important in their life", compared to 56% of the wider US population.
83% of Black Americans identified as Christian, including 45% who identified as baptist. Catholics accounted for 5% of the population. 1% of black Americans identified as Muslims. About 12% of African American people didn't identify with an established religion and identified as either unaffiliated,
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
or
agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
, slightly lower than the figure for the whole of the US.
In 2019 there were approximately three million
African American Catholics in the US, 24% of whom worshiped in the country's 798 predominantly African American parishes.
History
Colonial era
Africans brought religion with them from Africa, including Islam,
Catholicism, and traditional religions.
In the 1770s no more than 1% of black people in the United States had connections with organized churches. The numbers grew rapidly after 1789. The
Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
had made a systematic effort to proselytize, especially in Virginia, and to spread information about Christianity, and the ability to read the Bible, without making many converts.
No organized
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n religious practices are known to have taken place in the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
. In the mid-20th century scholars debated whether there were distinctive African elements embedded in black American religious practices, as in music and dancing. Scholars no longer look for such cultural transfers regarding religion.
Muslims practiced Islam surreptitiously or underground throughout the era of the enslavement of African people in North America.
The story of
Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori
Abdul Rahman Ibrahima ibn Sori ( ar, عبد الرحمن ابراهيم سوري; 1762—July 6, 1829) was a prince and Amir (commander) from the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea, West Africa, who was captured and sold to slave trad ...
, a Muslim prince from
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
who spent 40 years enslaved in the United States from 1788 onwards before being freed, demonstrates the survival of Muslim belief and practice among enslaved Africans in America.
Prior to the American Revolution, masters and revivalists spread Christianity to slave communities, including Catholicism in
Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida ( es, La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, ...
and
California, and in French and Spanish
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, and Protestantism in English colonies, supported by the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organization (registered charity no. 234518).
It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Part ...
.
In the
First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affecte ...
(ca. 1730–1755)
Baptists
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
were drawing Virginians, especially
poor-white farmers, into a new, much more democratic religion. Baptist gatherings made slaves welcome at their services, and a few Baptist congregations contained as many as 25% slaves.
Baptists
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
and
Methodists from New England preached a message against slavery, encouraged masters to free their slaves, converted both slaves and free blacks, and gave them active roles in new congregations. The first independent black congregations were started in the South before the Revolution, in South Carolina and Georgia. Believing that, "slavery was contrary to the ethics of Jesus", Christian congregations and church clergy, especially in the North, played a role in the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
, especially
Wesleyan Methodists The Wesleyan Church is a Methodist Christian denomination aligned with the holiness movement.
Wesleyan Church may also refer to:
* Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia, the Australian branch of the Wesleyan Church
Denominations
* Allegheny We ...
,
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
s and
Congregationalists.
White clergy within evangelical Protestantism actively promoted the idea that all Christians were equal in the sight of God, a message that provided hope and sustenance to oppressed slaves.
Over the decades and with the growth of slavery throughout the South, some Baptist and Methodist ministers gradually changed their messages to accommodate the institution. After 1830,
white Southerners
White Southerners, from the Southern United States, are considered an ethnic group by some historians, sociologists and journalists, although this categorization has proven controversial, and other academics have argued that Southern identity does ...
argued for the compatibility of Christianity and slavery, with a multitude of both
Old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
and
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
citations.
They promoted Christianity as encouraging better treatment of slaves and argued for a paternalistic approach. In the 1840s and 1850s, the issue of accepting slavery split the nation's largest religious denominations (the
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
,
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
and
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
churches) into separate Northern and Southern organizations; see
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...
,
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...
, and
Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America
The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS, originally Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America) was a Protestant denomination in the Southern and border states of the United States that existed from 1861 to 1983. That y ...
). Schisms occurred, such as that between the
Wesleyan Methodist Church and the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
.
Southern slaves generally attended their masters' white churches, where they often outnumbered the white congregants. They were usually permitted to sit only in the back or in the balcony. They listened to white preachers, who emphasized the obligation of slaves to keep in their place, and acknowledged the slave's identity as both person and property.
Preachers taught the master's responsibility and the concept of appropriate paternal treatment, using Christianity to improve conditions for slaves, and to treat them "justly and fairly" (Col. 4:1). This included masters having self-control, not disciplining under anger, not threatening, and ultimately fostering Christianity among their slaves by example.
Slaves also created their own religious observances, meeting alone without the supervision of their white masters or ministers. The larger plantations with groups of slaves numbering 20, or more, tended to be centers of nighttime meetings of one or several plantation slave populations.
These congregations revolved around a singular preacher, often illiterate with limited knowledge of theology, who was marked by his personal piety and ability to foster a spiritual environment. African Americans developed a theology related to Biblical stories having the most meaning for them, including the hope for deliverance from slavery by their own
Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
. One lasting influence of these secret congregations is the
African American spiritual.
Black
religious music
Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...
is distinct from traditional European religious music; it uses dances and
ring shout
A shout or ring shout is an ecstatic, transcendent religious ritual, first practiced by African slaves in the West Indies and the United States, in which worshipers move in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands. ...
s, and emphasizes emotion and repetition more intensely.
Formation of churches (18th century)
Scholars disagree about the extent of the native African content of black Christianity as it emerged in 18th-century America, but there is no dispute that the Christianity of the black population was grounded in
evangelicalism
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...
.
Central to the growth of community among black people was the
black church
The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their ...
, usually the first community institution to be established. Starting around 1800 with the
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...
,
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
and other churches, the black church grew to be the focal point of the black community. The black church was both an expression of community and unique African-American spirituality, and a reaction to discrimination.
[Albert J. Raboteau, ''Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans'' (2001)]
The church also served as neighborhood centers where free black people could celebrate their African heritage without intrusion by white detractors. The church also the center of education. Since the church was part of the community and wanted to provide education; they educated the freed and enslaved black community. Seeking autonomy, some black religious leaders like
Richard Allen founded separate black denominations.
The
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...
(1800–20s) has been called the "central and defining event in the development of Afro-Christianity".
Free black religious leaders also established black churches in the South before 1860. After the
Great Awakening
Great Awakening refers to a number of periods of religious revival in American Christian history. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the late ...
, many black Christians joined the
Baptist Church
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
, which allowed for their participation, including roles as elders and preachers. For instance,
First Baptist Church and
Gillfield Baptist Church of
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg (along with the city of Colonial Heights) with Din ...
, both had organized congregations by 1800 and were the first Baptist churches in the city.
Preaching
Historian Bruce Arnold argues that successful black pastors historically undertook multiple roles. These include:
*The black pastor is the paterfamilias of his church, responsible for shepherding and holding the community together, passing on its history and traditions, and acting as spiritual leader, wise counselor, and prophetic guide.
*The black pastor is a counselor and comforter stressing transforming, sustaining, and nurturing abilities of God to help the flock through times of discord, doubts, and counsels them to protect themselves against emotional deterioration.
*The black pastor is a community organizer and intermediary.
Raboteau describes a common style of black preaching first developed in the early nineteenth century, and common throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries:
:The preacher begins calmly, speaking in conversational, if oratorical and occasionally grandiloquent, prose; he then gradually begins to speak more rapidly, excitedly, and to chant his words and time to a regular beat; finally, he reaches an emotional peak in which the chanted speech becomes tonal and merges with the singing, clapping, and shouting of the congregation.
Many Americans interpreted great events in religious terms. Historian Wilson Fallin contrasts the interpretation of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and Reconstruction in white versus black Baptist sermons in Alabama. White Baptists expressed the view that:
: God had chastised them and given them a special mission – to maintain orthodoxy, strict biblicism, personal piety, and traditional race relations. Slavery, they insisted, had not been sinful. Rather, emancipation was a historical tragedy and the end of Reconstruction was a clear sign of God's favor.
In sharp contrast, black Baptists interpreted the Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction as:
: God's gift of freedom. They appreciated opportunities to exercise their independence, to worship in their own way, to affirm their worth and dignity, and to proclaim the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Most of all, they could form their own churches, associations, and conventions. These institutions offered self-help and racial uplift, and provided places where the gospel of liberation could be proclaimed. As a result, black preachers continued to insist that God would protect and help him; God would be their rock in a stormy land.
Black sociologist Benjamin Mays analyzed the content of sermons in the 1930s and concluded:
:They are conducive to developing in the Negro a complacent, laissez-faire attitude toward life. They support the view that God in His good time and in His own way will bring about the conditions that will lead to the fulfillment of social needs. They encourage Negroes to feel that God will see to it that things work out all right; if not in this world, certainly in the world to come. They make God influential chiefly in the beyond, and preparing a home for the faithful – a home where His suffering servants will be free of the trials and tribulations which beset them on earth.
After 1865
Black Americans, once freed from slavery, were very active in forming their own churches, most of them Baptist or Methodist, and giving their ministers both moral and political leadership roles. In a process of self-segregation, practically all black Americans left white churches so that few racially integrated congregations remained (apart from some Catholic churches in Louisiana). Four main organizations competed with each other across the South to form new Methodist churches composed of freedmen. They were the
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...
; the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
; the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church
The Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church is a historically black denomination within the broader context of Wesleyan Methodism founded and organized by John Wesley in England in 1744 and established in America as the Methodist Episcopal ...
(founded 1870 and composed of the former black members of the white
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...
) and the well-funded
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
(Northern white Methodists), which organized Mission Conferences. By 1871 the Northern Methodists had 88,000 black members in the South, and had opened numerous schools for them.
African-Americans during
Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
were politically the core element of the
Republican Party and the minister played a powerful political role. Their ministers had powerful political roles that were distinctive since they did not primarily depend on white support, in contrast to teachers, politicians, businessmen, and tenant farmers. Acting on the principle expounded by
Charles H. Pearce, an AME minister in Florida: "A man in this State cannot do his whole duty as a minister except he looks out for the political interests of his people," over 100 black ministers were elected to state legislatures during Reconstruction. Several served in Congress and one,
Hiram Revels
Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827Different sources list his birth year as either 1827 or 1822. – January 16, 1901) was an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Chur ...
, in the U.S. Senate.
Urban churches
The great majority of African-Americans lived in rural areas where services were held in small makeshift buildings. In the cities black churches were more visible. Besides their regular religious services, the urban churches had numerous other activities, such as scheduled prayer meetings, missionary societies, women's clubs, youth groups, public lectures, and musical concerts. Regularly scheduled revivals operated over a period of weeks reaching large and appreciative crowds.
[Howard N. Rabinowitz, ''Race Relations in the Urban South: 1865–1890'' (1978), pp. 208–13]
Charitable activities abounded concerning the care of the sick and needy. The larger churches had a systematic education program, besides the Sunday schools, and Bible study groups. They held literacy classes to enable older members to read the Bible. Private black colleges, such as Fisk in Nashville, often began in the basement of the churches. Church supported the struggling small business community.
Most important was the political role. Churches hosted protest meetings, rallies, and Republican party conventions. Prominent laymen and ministers negotiated political deals, and often ran for office until disfranchisement took effect in the 1890s. In the 1880s, the prohibition of liquor was a major political concern that allowed for collaboration with like-minded white Protestants. In every case, the pastor was the dominant decision-maker. His salary ranged from $400 a year to upwards of $1500, plus housing – at a time when 50 cents a day was good pay for unskilled physical labor.
Increasingly the Methodists reached out to college or seminary graduates for their ministers, but most of Baptists felt that education was a negative factor that undercut the intense religiosity and oratorical skills they demanded of their ministers.
After 1910, as black people migrated to major cities in both the North and the South, there emerged the pattern of a few very large churches with thousands of members and a paid staff, headed by an influential preacher. At the same time there were many "storefront" churches with a few dozen members.
Historically black Christian denominations
Methodism (inclusive of the holiness movement)
African Methodist Episcopal Church
![1918AME](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/1918AME.jpg)
In 1787,
Richard Allen and his colleagues in Philadelphia broke away from the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
and in 1816 founded the
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). It began with 8 clergy and 5 churches, and by 1846 had grown to 176 clergy, 296 churches, and 17,375 members. The 20,000 members in 1856 were located primarily in the North. AME national membership (including probationers and preachers) jumped from 70,000 in 1866 to 207,000 in 1876
AME put a high premium on education. In the 19th century, the AME Church of Ohio collaborated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominantly white denomination, in sponsoring the second independent historically black college (HBCU),
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. It participates in t ...
in Ohio. By 1880, AME operated over 2,000 schools, chiefly in the South, with 155,000 students. For school houses they used church buildings; the ministers and their wives were the teachers; the congregations raised the money to keep schools operating at a time the segregated public schools were starved of funds.
![Henry McNeil Turner](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Henry_McNeil_Turner.jpg)
After the Civil War Bishop
Henry McNeal Turner
Henry McNeal Turner (February 1, 1834 – May 8, 1915) was an American minister, politician, and the 12th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). After the American Civil War, he worked to establish new A.M ...
(1834–1915) was a major leader of the AME and played a role in Republican Party politics. In 1863 during the Civil War, Turner was appointed as the first black chaplain in the
United States Colored Troops
The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units. They were first recruited during ...
. Afterward, he was appointed to the
Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...
in Georgia. He settled in Macon and was elected to the state legislature in 1868 during Reconstruction. He planted many AME churches in Georgia after the war.
[Stephen Ward Angell, ''Henry McNeal Turner and African-American Religion in the South'', (1992)]
In 1880 he was elected as the first southern bishop of the AME Church after a fierce battle within the denomination. Angered by the Democrats' regaining power and instituting
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
laws in the late nineteenth century South, Turner was the leader of black nationalism and proposed emigration of the black community to Africa.
In terms of social status, the Methodist churches have typically attracted the black leadership and the middle class. Like all American denominations, there were numerous schisms and new groups were formed every year.
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
The AMEZ denomination was officially formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of years before then. The total membership in 1866 was about 42,000. The church-sponsored
Livingstone College
Livingstone College is a private, historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Sout ...
in Salisbury, North Carolina was founded to train missionaries for Africa. Today the AME Zion Church is especially active in mission work in Africa and the Caribbean, especially in Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, England, India, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Trinidad, and Tobago.
Wesleyan-Holiness movement
The
Holiness Movement
The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. The movement is historically distinguished by its emph ...
emerged within the
Methodist Church
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
in the late 19th century. It emphasized the Methodist belief of "
Christian perfection
Christian perfection is the name given to theological concepts within some sects of Christianity that purport to describe a process of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by ...
"–the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin, and particularly by the belief that this may be accomplished instantaneously through a
second work of grace
According to some Christian traditions, a second work of grace (also second blessing) is a transforming interaction with God which may occur in the life of an individual Christian. The defining characteristics of the second work of grace are tha ...
. Although many within the holiness movement remained within the mainline Methodist Church, new denominations were established, such as the
Free Methodist Church
The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology.
The Free Methodist Church has members in over 100 ...
,
Wesleyan Methodist Church, and
Church of God.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church was founded to herald Methodist doctrine, in addition to promoting
abolitionism
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
.
The
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)
The Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) is a holiness Christian denomination with roots in Wesleyan-Arminianism and also in the restorationist traditions. The organization grew out of the evangelistic efforts of several Holiness evangelists in Indi ...
, with its beginnings in 1881, held that "interracial worship was a sign of the true Church", with both whites and blacks ministering regularly in Church of God congregations, which invited people of all races to worship there.
Those who were
entirely sanctified testified that they were "saved, sanctified, and prejudice removed".
When Church of God ministers, such as Lena Shoffner, visited the
camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier d ...
s of other denominations, the rope in the congregation that separated whites and blacks was untied "and worshipers of both races approached the altar to pray".
Though outsiders would sometimes attack Church of God services and camp meetings for their stand for racial equality, Church of God members were "undeterred even by violence" and "maintained their strong interracial position as the core of their message of the unity of all believers".
Other Methodist connexions
*
African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection
*
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
*
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
The Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church is a historically black denomination within the broader context of Wesleyan Methodism founded and organized by John Wesley in England in 1744 and established in America as the Methodist Episcopal ...
*
Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A.
The Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. is a Holiness body of Christians headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2010, there were 14,000 members in 154 churches.
History
The Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. shares a common early history wi ...
*
Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church
The Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church is a Methodist connexion within the holiness movement.
The foundation of the Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church is part of the history of Methodism in the United ...
Baptists
After the Civil War, black Baptists desiring to practice Christianity away from racial discrimination, rapidly set up separate churches and separate state Baptist conventions. In 1866, black Baptists of the South and West combined to form the Consolidated American Baptist Convention. This Convention eventually collapsed but three national conventions formed in response. In 1895 the three conventions merged to create the
National Baptist Convention. It is now the largest African-American religious organization in the United States.
Since the late 19th century to the present, a large majority of black Christians belong to Baptist churches.
Baptist churches are locally controlled by the congregation, and select their own ministers. They choose local men – often quite young – with a reputation for religiosity, preaching skill, and ability to touch the deepest emotions of the congregations. Few were well-educated until the mid-twentieth century, when Bible Colleges became common. Until the late twentieth century, few of them were paid; most were farmers or had other employment. They became spokesman for their communities, and were among the few black people in the South allowed to vote in Jim Crow days before 1965.
National Baptist Convention
The National Baptist Convention was first organized in 1880 as the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention in
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
. Its founders, including Elias Camp Morris, stressed the preaching of the
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
as an answer to the shortcomings of a segregated church. In 1895, Morris moved to
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, 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. The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., is the largest African-American religious organization.
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was highly controversial in many black churches, where the minister preached spiritual salvation rather than political activism. The National Baptist Convention became deeply split. Its autocratic leader, Rev.
Joseph H. Jackson had supported the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956, but by 1960 he told his denomination they should not become involved in civil rights activism.
[Peter J. Paris, ''Black Leaders in Conflict: Joseph H. Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.'' (1978); Nick Salvatore, ''Singing in a strange land: C.L. Franklin, the black church, and the transformation of America'' (2007)]
Jackson was based in Chicago and was a close ally of Mayor
Richard J. Daley
Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Chicago from 1955 and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee from 1953 until his death. He has been cal ...
and the Chicago Democratic machine against the efforts of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and his aide the young
Jesse Jackson Jr.
Jesse Louis Jackson Jr. (born March 11, 1965) is an American politician. He served as the U.S. representative from from 1995 until his resignation in 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of activist and former presidential candi ...
(no relation to Joseph Jackson). In the end, King led his activists out of the National Baptist Convention into their own rival group, the
Progressive National Baptist Convention
The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), incorporated as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., is a mainline predominantly African-American Baptist denomination emphasizing civil rights and social justice. The headquarte ...
, which supported the extensive activism of the King's
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
.
Other Baptist denominations
*
Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship
The Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship (FGBCF) or Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International (FGBCFI) is a predominantly African-American Charismatic Baptist denomination established by Bishop Paul Sylvester Morton, a former National ...
*
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.
The National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc., (NBCA Intl or NBCA) more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention of America or sometimes the Boyd Convention, is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is ...
*
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America
The National Missionary Baptist Convention of America (NMBCA) is an African-American Baptist convention.
History
The National Missionary Baptist Convention of America (NMBCA) was formed during a meeting attended by Dr. S. J. Gilbert, Sr. and Dr ...
*
Progressive National Baptist Convention
The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), incorporated as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., is a mainline predominantly African-American Baptist denomination emphasizing civil rights and social justice. The headquarte ...
Pentecostalism
![William J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/William_J._Seymour_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Giggie finds that black Methodists and Baptists sought middle class respectability. In sharp contrast the new
Holiness Pentecostalism
Christian perfection is the name given to theological concepts within some sects of Christianity that purport to describe a process of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by ...
, in addition to the Holiness Methodist belief in
entire sanctification
Christian perfection is the name given to theological concepts within some sects of Christianity that purport to describe a process of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by ...
, which was based on a sudden religious experience that could empower people to avoid sin, also taught a belief in a
third work of grace
In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit, also called baptism in the Holy Spirit or baptism in the Holy Ghost, has been interpreted by different Christian denominations and traditions in a variety of ways due to differences in the doctr ...
accompanied by
glossolalia
Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...
.
These groups stressed the role of the direct witness of the Holy Spirit, and emphasized the traditional emotionalism of black worship.
William J. Seymour
William Joseph Seymour (May 2, 1870 – September 28, 1922) was an African-American Holiness movement, holiness preacher who initiated the Azusa Street Revival, an influential event in the rise of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movement, Charis ...
, a black preacher, traveled to Los Angeles where his preaching sparked the three-year-long
Azusa Street Revival
The Azusa Street Revival was a historic series of revival meetings that took place in Los Angeles, California. It was led by William J. Seymour, an African-American preacher. The revival began on April 9, 1906, and continued until roughly 1915. O ...
in 1906. Worship at the racially integrated Azusa Mission featured an absence of any order of service. People preached and testified as moved by the Spirit, spoke and sung in tongues, and fell in the Spirit. The revival attracted both religious and secular media attention, and thousands of visitors flocked to the mission, carrying the "fire" back to their home churches.
The crowds of black people and white people worshiping together at Seymour's Azusa Street Mission set the tone for much of the early Pentecostal movement. Pentecostals defied social, cultural and political norms of the time that called for racial segregation and
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
. Holiness Pentecostal denominations (the
Church of God in Christ
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is a Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly Bl ...
, the
Church of God, the
Pentecostal Holiness Church
The International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) or simply Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) is a Holiness-Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1911 with the merger of two older denominations. Historically centered in the Southeaste ...
),
and the
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. (P.A.W.) is one of the world's largest Oneness Pentecostal denominations, and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. While it began in 1906 with Trinitarian beliefs, it was re-organized in 1916 as ...
(a Oneness Finished Work Pentecostal denomination) were all interracial denominations before the 1920s. These groups, especially in the Jim Crow South were under great pressure to conform to segregation.
[Synan, ''The Holiness–Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century'' (1997) pp. 167–186.]
Ultimately, North American Pentecostalism would divide into white and African-American branches. Though it never entirely disappeared, interracial worship within Pentecostalism would not reemerge as a widespread practice until after the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
.
The
Church of God in Christ
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is a Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly Bl ...
(COGIC), an African American Pentecostal denomination founded in 1896, has become the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States
today.
Other Pentecostal denominations
*
Apostolic Faith Mission
*
Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith
The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith is a Oneness Pentecostal church with headquarters in Manhattan. It was founded in 1919 by Robert C. Lawson.
The church's mission statement is: "To evangelize the world for Jesus Christ; ...
*
Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas
*
Mount Sinai Holy Church of America
The Mount Sinai Holy Church of America(MSHCA), is a Christian church in the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition. The church is episcopal in governance. It has approximately 130 congregations in 14 states and 4 countries and a membership of over 50,000 ...
*
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. (P.A.W.) is one of the world's largest Oneness Pentecostal denominations, and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. While it began in 1906 with Trinitarian beliefs, it was re-organized in 1916 as ...
*
United House of Prayer for All People
The United House of Prayer for All People of the Church on the Rock of the Apostolic Faith was founded by Cabo Verdean Marcelino Manuel da Graça. In 1919, Grace built the first United House of Prayer For All People in West Wareham, Massachusetts, ...
*
Non-Christian religions
African religions
The
syncretist religion
Louisiana Voodoo
Louisiana Voodoo (french: Vaudou louisianais, es, Vudú de Luisiana), also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion which originated in Louisiana, now in the southern United States. It arose through a process of syncreti ...
has traditionally been practiced by
Creoles of color
The Creoles of color are a historic ethnic group of Creole people that developed in the former French and Spanish colonies of Louisiana (especially in the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, and Northwestern Florida i.e. Pensacola, Flor ...
and
African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, while
Hoodoo is a system of beliefs and rituals historically associated with
Gullah
The Gullah () are an African Americans, African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain ...
and
Black Seminoles
The Black Seminoles, or Afro-Seminoles are Native American-Africans associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans, and escaped slaves, who allied with Seminol ...
. Hoodoo and Voudou are still active religions in African-American communities in the United States, and there is a reclamation of these traditions by African-American youth.
Islam
Historically, between 15% and 30% of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
, but most of these Africans were forced into Christianity during the era of American slavery. Islam had taken hold in Africa through Arab Muslim expansionism that began following Muhammad's death, and its presence solidified through trade, occupation, of the enduring 1300 year Middle Eastern slave trade of Africans that lasted well into until the 1900s. During the twentieth century, many African Americans who were seeking to reconnect with their African heritage converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, mainly through the influence of
black nationalist
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race (human categorization), race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black natio ...
groups with distinctive beliefs and practices. These included the
Moorish Science Temple of America
The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American national and religious organization founded by Noble Drew Ali (born as Timothy Drew) in the early twentieth century. He based it on the premise that African Americans are descendants of the Moa ...
, and the largest organization, the
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African ...
, founded in the 1930s, which had at least 20,000 members by 1963.,
Prominent members of the Nation of Islam included the
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
activist
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
and the
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
* Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
. Malcolm X is considered the first person to have started the conversion of African Americans to mainstream
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...
, after he left the Nation and made the
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
and changed his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. In 1975,
Warith Deen Mohammed
Warith Deen Mohammed (born Wallace D. Muhammad; October 30, 1933 – September 9, 2008), also known as W. Deen Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen, was an African-American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revi ...
, the son of Elijah Muhammad, took control of the Nation after his father's death and converted the majority of its members to orthodox Sunni Islam.
African-American Muslims constitute 20% of the
total U.S. Muslim population. The majority of black Muslims are Sunni or orthodox Muslims. A 2014 Pew survey showed that 23% of American Muslims were converts to Islam, including 8% who converted to Islam from historically black Protestant traditions.
Other religions claim to be Islamic, including the
Moorish Science Temple of America
The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American national and religious organization founded by Noble Drew Ali (born as Timothy Drew) in the early twentieth century. He based it on the premise that African Americans are descendants of the Moa ...
and offshoots of it, such as the
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African ...
and the
Five Percenters
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awar ...
.
Judaism
The
American Jewish community
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...
includes Jews with African-American backgrounds. African-American Jews belong to each of the major American
Jewish denominations
Jewish religious movements, sometimes called "religious denomination, denominations", include different groups within Judaism which have developed among Jews from ancient times. Today, the most prominent divisions are between traditionalist Ortho ...
—
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
,
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
,
Reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...
—as well as minor
religious movements within Judaism. Like
Jews with other racial backgrounds, there are also African-American Jewish secularists and
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
who may rarely or never participate in religious practices. Estimates of the number of black Jews in the United States range from 20,000 to 200,000. Most black Jews have mixed ethnic backgrounds, or they are Jewish by either birth or conversion.
Black Hebrew Israelites
Black Hebrew Israelites (also called black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
who
believe that they are the descendants of the ancient
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
. To varying degrees, Black Hebrews adhere to the religious beliefs and practices of both
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
and
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
. They are not
recognized as Jews by the greater Jewish community. Many of them choose to call themselves Hebrew Israelites or black Hebrews rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections.
Others
There are African-Americans, mostly converts, who adhere to other faiths, namely the
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
,
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...
,
Scientology
Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The most recent published census data indi ...
, and
Rastafari
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...
.
A 2019 report examined a sect of African-American women who venerated the African deity
Oshun
Ọṣun, is an orisha, a spirit, a deity, or a goddess that reflects one of the manifestations of the Yorùbá Supreme Being in the Ifá oral tradition and Yoruba-based religions of West Africa. She is one of the most popular and venerated ...
in a form of
Modern Paganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...
.
Some African Americans practice
Louisiana Voodoo
Louisiana Voodoo (french: Vaudou louisianais, es, Vudú de Luisiana), also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion which originated in Louisiana, now in the southern United States. It arose through a process of syncreti ...
, especially African Americans in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. Louisiana Voodoo was brought to Louisiana by African slaves from
Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
during the French colonial era.
See also
*
Black theology
Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It context ...
*
National Black Catholic Congress
The National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC) is a Black Catholic advocacy group and quinquennial conference in the United States. It is a spiritual successor to Daniel Rudd's Colored Catholic Congress movement of the late 19th and early 20th centur ...
*
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
*
Louisiana black church fires
Three Louisiana black churches were set alight by a suspected arsonist between March 26 and April 4, 2019. The first fire occurred at St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre on March 26. Ten days later, two other historic black churches, Greater ...
*
African diaspora religions
African diaspora religions are a number of related Pagan beliefs that developed in the Americas in various nations of the Caribbean, Latin America and the Southern United States. They derive from Pagan traditional African religions with some infl ...
*
Black church
The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their ...
*
Atheism in the African diaspora
Atheism in the African diaspora is atheism as it is experienced by black people outside of Africa. In the United States, blacks are less likely than other ethnic groups to be religiously unaffiliated, let alone identifying as atheist. The demogra ...
*
Islam in the African diaspora The practice of Islam by members of the African diaspora may be a consequence of African Muslims retaining their religion after leaving Africa (as for many Muslims in Europe) or of people of African ethnicity converting to Islam, as among many Afric ...
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African American–Jewish relations
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
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African-American Jews
African-American Jews are people who are both African American and Jewish. African-American Jews may be either Jewish from birth or converts to Judaism. Many African-American Jews are of mixed heritage, having both African-American gentile and ...
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Black Mormons
Since Mormonism’s foundation, Black people have been members, however the church placed restrictions on proselytization efforts among black people. Before 1978, black membership was small. It has since grown, and in 1997, there were approximatel ...
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Black people and Mormonism
Over the past two centuries, the relationship between black people and Mormonism has included both official and unofficial discrimination.
From the mid-1800s to 1978, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) prevented most ...
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Black Catholicism
Black Catholicism or African-American Catholicism comprises the African American people, beliefs, and practices in the Catholic Church.
There are currently around 3 million Black Catholics in the United States, making up 6% of the total popula ...
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T. D. Jakes
Thomas Dexter Jakes (born June 9, 1957), known as T. D. Jakes, is an American bishop, author and filmmaker. He is the bishop of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch. Jakes's church services and Evangelistic sermons are ...
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Christian hip hop
Christian hip hop (originally gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, gospel hip hop or holy hip hop) is a subgenre of contemporary Christian music and hip hop music. It emerged from urban contemporary music and Christian media in the United S ...
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Black Gospel music
Black gospel music, often called gospel music or gospel, is a genre of African-American Christian music. It is rooted in the conversion of enslaved Africans to Christianity, both during and after the trans-atlantic slave trade, starting with w ...
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Louisiana Voodoo
Louisiana Voodoo (french: Vaudou louisianais, es, Vudú de Luisiana), also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion which originated in Louisiana, now in the southern United States. It arose through a process of syncreti ...
History:
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Methodist Episcopal Church, South
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...
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Wesleyanism
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...
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Colored Episcopal Mission {{short description, Obsolete Anglican term used by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Colored Episcopal Mission is an obsolete Anglican term used by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.The term was coined in the 1 ...
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Racial segregation of churches in the United States
Racial segregation of churches in the United States is a pattern of Christian churches maintaining segregated congregations based on race. As of 2001, as many as 87% of Christian churches in the United States were completely made up of only white ...
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Religion in the United States
Christianity is the most widely professed religion in the United States, with Protestantism being its largest branch, although the country is believed to be "rapidly secularizing".
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History of religion in the United States
Religion in the United States began with the religions and spiritual practices of Native Americans. Later, religion also played a role in the founding of some colonies, as many colonists, such as the Puritans, came to escape religious persecutio ...
Notes
Further reading
Arnold, Bruce Makoto. "Shepherding a Flock of a Different Fleece: A Historical and Social Analysis of the Unique Attributes of the African American Pastoral Caregiver." The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling 66, no. 2 (June 2012).* Brooks, Walter H. "The Evolution of the Negro Baptist Church." ''Journal of Negro History'' (1922) 7#1 pp. 11–22
in JSTOR* Brunner, Edmund D. ''Church Life in the Rural South'' (1923) pp. 80–92, based on the survey in the early 1920s of 30 communities across the rural South
* Calhoun-Brown, Allison. "The image of God: Black theology and racial empowerment in the African American community." ''Review of Religious Research'' (1999): 197–212
in JSTOR* Chapman, Mark L. ''Christianity on trial: African-American religious thought before and after Black power'' (2006)
* Collier-Thomas, Bettye. ''Jesus, jobs, and justice: African American women and religion'' (2010)
* Curtis, Edward E. "African-American Islamization Reconsidered: Black history Narratives and Muslim identity." ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'' (2005) 73#3 pp. 659–84.
* Davis, Cyprian. ''The History of Black Catholics in the United States'' (1990).
* Fallin Jr., Wilson. ''Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama'' (2007)
* Fitts, Leroy. ''A history of black Baptists'' (Broadman Press, 1985)
* Frey, Sylvia R. and
Betty Wood
Betty C. Wood (23 February 1945 – 3 September 2021) was a British historian and academic, who specialised in early American history, Atlantic history, social history, and slavery in eighteenth and early nineteenth century. She was a Fellow of G ...
. ''Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830'' (1998).
* Garrow, David. ''Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference'' (1986).
* Giggie, John Michael. ''After redemption: Jim Crow and the transformation of African American religion in the Delta, 1875–1915'' (2007)
* * Harper, Matthew. ''The End of Days: African American Religion and Politics in the Age of Emancipation'' (U of North Carolina Press, 2016) xii, 211 pp.
* Harris, Fredrick C. ''Something within: Religion in African-American political activism'' (1999)
* Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. ''Righteous Discontent: The Woman’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920'' (1993), highly influential study
* Jackson, Joseph H. ''A Story of Christian Activism: The History of the National Baptist Convention, USA. Inc'' (Nashville: Townsend Press, 1980); official history
* Johnson, Paul E., ed. ''African-American Christianity: Essays in History'' (1994).
* Mays, Benjamin E., and Joseph W. Nicholson. ''The Negro Church'' New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research (1933), sociological survey of rural and urban black churches in 1930
* Mays, Benjamin E. ''The Negro's God as reflected in his literature'' (1938), based on sermons
* Montgomery, William E. ''Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865–1900'' (1993)
* Moody, Joycelyn. ''Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives of Nineteenth-century African American Women'' (2001)
* Owens, A. Nevell. ''Formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Nineteenth Century: Rhetoric of Identification'' (2014)
* Paris, Peter J. ''The Social Teaching of the Black Churches'' (Fortress Press, 1985)
* Raboteau, Albert. ''Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South'' (1978)
* Raboteau, Albert. ''African American-Religion'' (1999) 145p
onlinebasic introduction
* Raboteau, Albert J. ''Canaan land: A religious history of African Americans'' (2001).
* Salvatore, Nick. ''Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America'' (2005) on the politics of the National Baptist Convention
* Sensbach, Jon F. ''Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World'' (2005)
* Smith, R. Drew, ed. ''Long March ahead: African American churches and public policy in post-civil rights America'' (2004).
* Sobel, M. '' Trabelin’ On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith'' (1979)
* Southern, Eileen. ''The Music of Black Americans: A History'' (1997)
* Spencer, Jon Michael. ''Black hymnody: a hymnological history of the African-American church'' (1992)
* Wills, David W. and Richard Newman, eds. ''Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-Americans and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction'' (1982)
*Woodson, Carter. ''The History of the Negro Church'' (1921
online free comprehensive history by leading black scholar
* Yong, Amos, and Estrelda Y. Alexander. ''Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture'' (2012)
Historiography
* Evans, Curtis J. ''The Burden of Black Religion'' (2008); traces ideas about Black religion from the antebellum period to 1950
* Frey, Sylvia R. "The Visible Church: Historiography of African American Religion since Raboteau," ''Slavery & Abolition'' (2008) 29#1 pp. 83–110
* Fulop, Timothy Earl, and Albert J. Raboteau, eds. ''African-American religion: interpretive essays in history and culture'' (1997)
* Vaughn, Steve. "Making Jesus black: the historiographical debate on the roots of African-American Christianity." ''Journal of Negro History'' (1997): 25–41
in JSTOR
Primary sources
*
DuBois, W. E. B. ''The Negro Church: Report of a Social Study Made under the Direction of Atlanta University'' (1903)
tp://65.186.223.235/FreeAgent_Black/Documents%20103110/Misc/The%20Negro%20Church.docx online*
Sernett, Milton C., ed. ''Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness'' (Duke University Press, 1985; 2nd ed. 1999)
*
West, Cornel, and
Eddie S. Glaude
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (born September 4, 1968) is an American academic. He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where he is also the Chair of the Center for African Amer ...
, eds. ''African American religious thought: An anthology'' (2003).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Religion In Black America
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
Black studies
African-American society
African Americans and religion
African-American Christianity
African-American culture