Following the abolition of slavery, African Americans established wholly black churches as the center of their new communities. The churches provided a place for African Americans to further their call for equality and strengthen their identity as free people. Through the black church, African Americans sought autonomy, economic independence, and a separate spiritual community distinct from white congregations during Reconstruction. The churches became politically and socially important institutions within the African American community.

1. Building the Black
Community: The
Church
{ By: Vincent Stanec & Erin Wright

2.  It quickly became clear that to African
Americans, freedom did not just mean release
from the shackles of southern plantations – to
them, it meant autonomy as a community and
within families, economic independence, and
equality under the law.
Eric Foner’s The Meaning
of Freedom Thesis

3.  Following the abolition of slavery post-Civil
war, African Americans sought to establish
their first sense of community and identity
through the creation of a separate and wholly
black church. Through this church, African
Americans of the reconstruction period sought
to further their call for equality and strengthen
their identity, both as people and a community.
The Creation of the Black
Church Thesis

4. Antebellum South:
Biracial Congregations

5. Withdrawal: Wholly
African-American
Congregations

6. We are the Chosen Ones

7. Churches: Architecturally
& Financially Modest

8. Faith: Important in
African-American
Community

9. Church: Center of African-
American Community

10. Spirituality: Distinctive
African-American Faith

11. Leaders: In Politics and
Religion

12. Congregations: Spirit of
Self-Improvement

13.  Hon. H.R. Revels, United States Senator Elect from Mississippi. February 19, 1870.
HarpWeek. Harper's Weekly, 2004. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.
http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7Illustrations/Reconstruction/HRRevels.htm
 Jackson, M, Jr. Family Worship In a Plantation in South Carolina. Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division. Digital Schomburg
Images of 19th Century African Americans. Shomburg Center for African American
History New York Public Library, 1999. Web. 3 Jan. 2012.
http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?
 Moore, Joanna P. BANNER BIBLE BAND, NASHVILLE, TENN. 1902. Photograph.
"In Christ's Stead": Autobiographical Sketches., Chicago. Documenting the American
South. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. Web. 3 Jan. 2012.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/moore/ill28.html
 Photograph. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and
Prints Division. Digital Schomburg Images of 19th Century African Americans.
Shomburg Center for African American History New York Public Library, 1999.
Web. 3 Jan. 2012. http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?
 Photograph. King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation. King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation. Web.
3 Jan. 2012. http://www.kingtisdell.org/Jubilee2.jpg
 Religion So Sweet. 1867. Photograph. Documenting the American South. The University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. Web. 3 Jan. 2012.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/ss17.jpg
 Sheppard, W. L. Interior View of the First African Baptist Church in Richmond. 1874.
Digital History: America's Reconstruction: People and Politics After the Civil War.
Harper's Weekly, 2011. Web. 3 Jan. 2012.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/section2/section2_07b.html
 White, Elizabeth. All God's Chillun's Got Wings! 1933. Soft-ground etching and
aquatint. Courtesy of the Sumter Gallery of Art, South Carolina. African American
Odyssey. Library of Congress. Web. 3 Jan. 2012.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5b.html
Bibliography

14.  church13. N.d. blackartdepot.com. Web. 3 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.blackartdepot.com/gallery/blackchurch/crops/church13.jpg>.
 E.C. Morris. 1901. JPEG file.
 Joanna P. Moore, 1832-1916 “In Christ’s Stead”: Autobiographical Sketches.
1902. JPEG file.
 Martin Luther King at Church. N.d. JPEG file.
 Moses Parts the Red Sea. N.d. JPEG file.
 Richard R. Wright (Richard Robert), b. 1878 Centennial Encyclopaedia of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church. Containing Principally the Biographies
of the Men and Women, both Ministers and Laymen, Whose Labors During
a Hundred Years, Helped Make the A. M. E. Church What It Is; Also Short
Historical Sketches of Annual Conferences, Educational Institutions, General
Departments, Missionary Societies of the A. M. E. Church, and General
Information about African Methodism and the Christian Church in General;
Being a Literary Contribution to the Celebration of the One Hundredth
Anniversary of the Formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
Denomination by Richard Allen and others, at Philadelphia, Penna., in 1816.
1916. JPEG file.
Bibliography