History of African American Christianity

The history of African American Christianity traces the development of religious life among Black Americans from the era of slavery to the present day. Emerging out of the complex interplay between African religious traditions, European missionary efforts, and the lived experiences of enslavement, African American Christianity became a cornerstone of Black culture and identity. During slavery, white slaveholders often used Christianity to enforce obedience, citing biblical passages that emphasized submission to masters. Yet enslaved Africans and their descendants created their own vibrant religious practices, blending African spiritual elements with Christian theology in hidden “invisible churches” and praise houses. Over time, they established independent Black congregations and denominations, which played crucial roles not only as centers of worship but also as hubs for education, community organization, and social activism. From the early African Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches to their leadership in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, African American Christianity has been both a site of spiritual resilience and a force for cultural and political transformation in the United States.

The history of African American Christianity traces the development of religious life among Black Americans from the era of slavery to the present day. Emerging out of the complex interplay between African religious traditions, European missionary efforts, and the lived experiences of enslavement, African American Christianity became a cornerstone of Black culture and identity. During slavery, white slaveholders often used Christianity to enforce obedience, citing biblical passages that emphasized submission to masters. Yet enslaved Africans and their descendants created their own vibrant religious practices, blending African spiritual elements with Christian theology in hidden “invisible churches” and praise houses. Over time, they established independent Black congregations and denominations, which played crucial roles not only as centers of worship but also as hubs for education, community organization, and social activism. From the early African Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches to their leadership in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, African American Christianity has been both a site of spiritual resilience and a force for cultural and political transformation in the United States.

===Slavery===

==Slavery==

{{See also|Slavery_in_the_United_States#Religion}}

{{See also|Slavery_in_the_United_States#Religion}}

[[File:River baptism in New Bern.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|"Wade in the water." A postcard of a river baptism in [[New Bern, North Carolina|New Bern]], North Carolina, around 1900.]]

[[File:River baptism in New Bern.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|"Wade in the water." A postcard of a river baptism in [[New Bern, North Carolina|New Bern]], North Carolina, around 1900.]]

===Free black churches===

==Free black churches==

Free black Americans in both Northern and Southern U.S. cities formed their own congregations and churches before the end of the 18th century. They organized independent African American congregations and churches to practice religion apart from white oversight.<ref name="eblackstudies">{{cite book |url=http://eblackstudies.org/intro/chapter10.htm |title=Religion and the Black Church |series=Introduction to Afro-American Studies |publisher=Twenty-first Century Books and Publications |location=Chicago |edition=6th |author=[[Abdul Alkalimat]] and Associates |access-date=2007-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408020237/http://eblackstudies.org/intro/chapter10.htm |archive-date=2007-04-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="ame" /> Along with white churches opposed to slavery, free black people in Philadelphia provided aid and comfort to slaves who escaped and helped all new arrivals adjust to city life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1998/Paper11.html |title=The Underground Railroad in Indiana |last=Rimsa |first=Kelly |access-date=2007-05-21 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070413053302/http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1998/Paper11.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-04-13}}</ref>

Free black Americans in both Northern and Southern U.S. cities formed their own congregations and churches before the end of the 18th century. They organized independent African American congregations and churches to practice religion apart from white oversight.<ref name="eblackstudies">{{cite book |url=http://eblackstudies.org/intro/chapter10.htm |title=Religion and the Black Church |series=Introduction to Afro-American Studies |publisher=Twenty-first Century Books and Publications |location=Chicago |edition=6th |author=[[Abdul Alkalimat]] and Associates |access-date=2007-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408020237/http://eblackstudies.org/intro/chapter10.htm |archive-date=2007-04-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="ame" /> Along with white churches opposed to slavery, free black people in Philadelphia provided aid and comfort to slaves who escaped and helped all new arrivals adjust to city life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1998/Paper11.html |title=The Underground Railroad in Indiana |last=Rimsa |first=Kelly |access-date=2007-05-21 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070413053302/http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1998/Paper11.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-04-13}}</ref>

[[Free Negro|Free Black]] communities in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York helped [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|freedom seekers]] escape from slavery. Black Churches were stops on the [[Underground Railroad]], and Black communities in the North hid freedom seekers in their churches and homes. Historian Cheryl Janifer Laroche explained in her book, ''Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance'' that: "Blacks, enslaved and free, operated as the main actors in the central drama that was the Underground Railroad."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Laroche |first1=Cheryl J. |title=Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252095894 |pages=1–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7gPBAAAQBAJ&q=free+blacks+underground+railroad}}</ref>

[[Free Negro|Free Black]] communities in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York helped [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|freedom seekers]] escape from slavery. Black Churches were stops on the [[Underground Railroad]], and Black communities in the North hid freedom seekers in their churches and homes. Historian Cheryl Janifer Laroche explained in her book, ''Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance'' that: "Blacks, enslaved and free, operated as the main actors in the central drama that was the Underground Railroad."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Laroche |first1=Cheryl J. |title=Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252095894 |pages=1–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7gPBAAAQBAJ&q=free+blacks+underground+railroad}}</ref>

===Reconstruction===

==Reconstruction==

{{See also|Reconstruction era}}

{{See also|Reconstruction era}}

Since the male hierarchy denied them opportunities for [[ordination]], middle-class women in the black church asserted themselves in other ways: they organized [[missionary]] societies to address social issues. These societies provided job training and [[Reading|reading education]], worked for better living conditions, raised money for African missions, wrote religious periodicals, and promoted [[Victorian era|Victorian]] ideals of womanhood, respectability, and racial uplift.<ref name="doc south"/>

Since the male hierarchy denied them opportunities for [[ordination]], middle-class women in the black church asserted themselves in other ways: they organized [[missionary]] societies to address social issues. These societies provided job training and [[Reading|reading education]], worked for better living conditions, raised money for African missions, wrote religious periodicals, and promoted [[Victorian era|Victorian]] ideals of womanhood, respectability, and racial uplift.<ref name="doc south"/>

===Civil rights movement===

==Civil rights movement==

[[File:Ralph Abernathy.jpg|thumb|[[Ralph Abernathy|Ralph David Abernathy]] was a [[Baptists|Baptist]] minister involved in the [[Civil rights movement|American Civil Rights Movement]].]]

[[File:Ralph Abernathy.jpg|thumb|[[Ralph Abernathy|Ralph David Abernathy]] was a [[Baptists|Baptist]] minister involved in the [[Civil rights movement|American Civil Rights Movement]].]]

{{See also|Civil rights movement}}

{{See also|Civil rights movement}}

Black churches held a leadership role in the [[Civil rights movement|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 Abernathy|Ralph David Abernathy]], [[Bernard Lee (activist)|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. [[Theodore Hesburgh|Ted Hesburgh]], who would later be recruited by [[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Johnson]] to help craft the legislation that would later become the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|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>

Black churches held a leadership role in the [[Civil rights movement|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 Abernathy|Ralph David Abernathy]], [[Bernard Lee (activist)|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. [[Theodore Hesburgh|Ted Hesburgh]], who would later be recruited by [[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Johnson]] to help craft the legislation that would later become the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|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>

=== Black Power movement ===

== Black Power movement ==

{{Main|Black Power movement|Black Catholic Movement}}

{{Main|Black Power movement|Black Catholic Movement}}

After the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, by [[James Earl Ray]], African American Catholics began organizing en masse, beginning with [[National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus|the clergy]] that April. A [[Black Catholic Movement|Black Catholic revolution]] soon broke out, fostering the [[Inculturation|integration]] of the traditions of the larger (Protestant) Black Church into Black Catholic parishes. Soon there were organizations formed for Black [[Religious sister (Catholic)|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.

After the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, by [[James Earl Ray]], African American Catholics began organizing en masse, beginning with [[National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus|the clergy]] that April. A [[Black Catholic Movement|Black Catholic revolution]] soon broke out, fostering the [[Inculturation|integration]] of the traditions of the larger (Protestant) Black Church into Black Catholic parishes. Soon there were organizations formed for Black [[Religious sister (Catholic)|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 ====

== Black theology ==

{{Main|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>

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>

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>

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 ====

== Womanist theology ==

{{Main|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 T. Phelps|Jamie Phelps]], OP, [[M. Shawn Copeland]], and [[Diana L. Hayes]].{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

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 T. Phelps|Jamie Phelps]], OP, [[M. Shawn Copeland]], and [[Diana L. Hayes]].{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}