Churches
History
After the Civil War and the Emancipation of enslaved Black people, there was a period known as the Presidential Reconstruction. This period was from 1865 to 1867, and during this time, the white community still believed that Black people were the ‘inferior race’ and should be ‘kept in their place.’ Different denominations of the Christian Church held different ideas on how to control Black community members. White Presbyterians believed that it was important to retain the freedmen within the church and dissuade them from breaking and creating new churches. This was an attempt to keep Black people from worshipping how they liked in their own space. White Baptists believed the opposite of the Presbyterians. They encouraged Black church members to create their own churches and even proposed the “Committee on Colored Membership” in 1865. White Methodists took a similar approach to the Baptists but were more unwilling to let go after the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal of Zion were created. Although white religious groups had differing opinions on how to segregate their churches, they all agreed that the need to continue control over the Black congregation was paramount to success.
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Curated by Ashlyn Racine