The first Black congregations in America pre-date the nation’s founding in 1776.
Since then, African American churches continue to support faith and the fight for civil rights across the country and in Chicago.
The origins of the Black church in America could conceivably be traced to the first experiences of Africans in this country, on plantations.
When ministering to Black congregants, white preachers often used so-called “slave bibles,” different from the ones they used in their own churches. One of three remaining copies belongs to Fisk University. It emphasizes passages calling for servants to be obedient. Stories such as Moses leading the Israelite slaves to freedom were removed.
So, the enslaved often met in their quarters, secretly, to sing and pray, and discuss ideas for their collective good.
Jemar Tisby, professor and author of “The Color of Compromise” said one of the first things Black people did after the Civil War was form their own congregations.
“The Black church itself is resistance to racism,” he said. “It wasn’t over any deep theological differences with white Christians. It was because they didn’t want to be treated as second-class citizens in the household of God, and the only way that could happen was to form their own churches.”
But even before the Civil War, the country began to see the effects of the Black church’s political power.
Alvin Tillery teaches political science at Northwestern University and leads their Center for Study of Diversity and Democracy.
“The earliest sort of evidence of that would have been what we call the ‘Federal period of the Republic,’ right after the War of 1812, where you had the African Methodist Episcopal Church denomination being founded in, I believe, the 1790s,” Tillery said. “They became incredibly active in the anti-slavery movement, and they were also the foundation of the back to Africa movement.”
The Rev. Otis Moss III leads the congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side. They’re well known for playing an active role in addressing the issues Black people face beyond the church building. In the early 2000s, Trinity found itself under fire during the election of President Barack Obama, who was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ at the time. Portions of a sermon preached by then-pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright criticizing the government about its handling of Sept. 11 made headlines, forcing a public distance between the church and the former president.
“The role of the Black church tradition is to speak truth to power,” Moss said. “Jesus was always speaking to those who were in power, demanding that they treat and recognize those who were the most marginalized in the community, and we are following that tradition.”
In the ’50s and ’60s, the Black church served as a hub of safety, services and strategy.
“We see historically Black churches being literally the physical sites for organizing. When civil rights workers didn’t have any other place to meet, they could meet at a Black church,” Tisby said.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a master of finding the intersection of politics and the pulpit, forming the Southern Christian leadership conference in 1957 after successfully leading the Montgomery bus boycott, a movement born inside a church and one that King said some white Christians could have been more involved in.
“We should remember his letter from a Birmingham jail. He admonished the white moderate, many of whom were Christians, and his frustration was that they were sitting on the sidelines during the Civil Rights Movement, they weren’t actively involved,” Tisby said. “Some of them just supported the racist status quo, and they did that because they thought there should be this separation between faith and what they called social justice. … There should certainly be a separation of church and state, but that doesn’t mean there is a separation of faith and politics.”
And politicians know the people in those pews vote. The evidence can be seen every election season.
“It’s been a tradition in certain cities, where politicians will show up at a church seeking their constituents for votes. I think there should be particular parameters,” Moss said. “One of the things we do here at Trinity, we set up a community forum where politicians can come and the community can actually question the person coming, versus just using the platform to speak.”
With church attendance in the United States falling across denominations, some analysts say the political power once held is weakening.
“Another problem is the Black church’s cultural conservatism,” Tillery said. “We just saw with the African Methodist Episcopal Church denomination — their continual refusal to sanctify same-sex marriages, you know, this really cuts against public opinion in those same generations they need to get into their pews.”
As the Trump administration introduces the first “White House Faith Office” to eradicate what it describes as “anti-Christian bias within the federal government,” some have concerns about religion being used to separate Americans.
“Historically, that is not how the Black church has interpreted faith in politics. They’ve wanted an expansion in democracy and expansion of civil rights, and they’ve understood that as part of their faith as being made in God’s image having equal dignity with all types of people,” Tisby said.
Moss says the issues that transcend politics will always be part of the Black church’s focus.
“No matter who is in power, there are going to be people who are unhoused. No matter who is in power, there are going to be people who have mental health challenges. No matter who is in power, we have to make sure that our children are able to flourish, that we disrupt a mass incarceration system, and we look toward the idea of economic equality,” he said. “That is not a Democrat or Republican issue, that is a human flourishing issue, and that is what the church should be speaking about.”