Églises afro-américaines

The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their collective traditions and members. The term "black church" can also refer to individual congregations. Black churches arose at a time when racial segregation was common in the United States. While most black congregations belong to predominantly African American Protestant denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), Church of God in Christ (COGIC), or National Baptist Convention related churches, others are in predominantly white Protestant denominations such as the United Church of Christ (which developed from the Congregational Church of New England), integrated denominations such as the Church of God, or are independent congregations. There are also Black Catholic churches. Most of the first black congregations and churches formed before 1800 were founded by freed black people—for example, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Springfield Baptist Church (Augusta, Georgia); Petersburg, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia. The oldest black Baptist church in Kentucky, and third oldest black Baptist church in the United States, the First African Baptist Church, was founded about 1790 by the slave Peter Durrett. The oldest black Catholic church, St Augustine in New Orleans, was founded by free blacks in 1841. However, black religious orders such as the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore have existed as far back as the 1820s. After slavery in the United States was abolished, segregationist attitudes towards blacks and whites worshiping together were not as predominant in the North as compared to the South. Many white Protestant ministers moved to the South after the American Civil War to establish churches where black and white people worshiped together.