How Did Richard Allen Influence The Catholic Church

Black Churches were extremely importan to African Americans from the years of slavery to this very day. Although attending them was difficult for blacks, they became the core of African American communities. “The biracial churches the Awakening spawned had never embraced African Americans on an equal basis with white people, and as time passed, white people denied black people significant influence in church governance” (pg. 101). Richard Allen and Absalom Jones would lead a movement and gain permission to use a church at evening times to preach to blacks. They would be forced out and need to establish a church of their own. White leaders would try to take over control of Mother Bethel congregation until 1816. This resulted “Mother Bethel becoming the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME)” (pg.

Since the arrival of African Americans in this country blacks have always had differing experiences. Consequently, African-Americans have had to forge a self-identity out of what has been passed on to them as fact about their true selves. History has wrought oppression and subjugation to this particular race of people and as a result, certain institutions were formed in order aid African-Americans, culturally, spiritually and economically. The African-American Church has served of one such institution. From the time of slavery, though outlawed, many slaves found ways to congregate and form their own "churches", away from the one-sided and bias lessons about the bible that they were being taught in the white church. The white ministers and

Black religion was no longer regarded as exemplary or special. During a time of growing segregation and violence, some black leaders attempted to counter this perspective seen by whites by embracing the romantic racialist notions that “blacks possessed peculiar gifts.” These gifts being directly connected to the importance of black churches in a time of direct exclusion of blacks from other pieces of society.

David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in particular, and very expressly to those of the United States of America, “promoted racial solidarity and moral elevation with fervor,” and is as much a political source as it is religious. His Appeal adamantly argues against oppression and slavery while encouraging a vivacious and lively spirit amongst the black community, in the hopes of promoting unity and diminishing the acceptance of mistreatment from their white counterparts. To convey this message, which was presented in a mannerism that was extremely radical, Walker uses the bible and what can most clearly be defined as a Methodist theology to support his stance on the issues of society.

In the Letter to a Birmingham Jail edited by Bryan Loritts, the reader is given several reflections from various individuals who were influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's A Letter from Birmingham Jail. These various accounts contain an overall theme of injustice, inequality and focus on how the church plays a pivotal role in correcting such societal issues. In the section, A Painful Joyful Journey, the reader reviews the life of Crawford W. Lorittis Jr. and his navigation in the North as an educated black man. In this section he addresses the many societal adjustments he had to encounter throughout life. Often criticized by both the Black and White community, Lorritis sought validation from both groups, as a way to gain self-worth.

"The Black church functioned as revolutionary unity during slavery." The African Methodist Episcopal Church, not formally organized until 1816 but dates back to 1787 refused to abide by the Jim Crow laws. In protest, they all left the church and established their own genre of worship. The founders of the African Methodist church were uneducated, illiterate ex-slaves. Despite that, they had a clear sense of their dignity and worth. They rejected the irrational treatment of their White counterparts, who considered them as a nuisance in the Church. Whites wanted to keep Africans within the church separate. They even created legal obstacles for separation. As a result, the African Methodist formed independent churches in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was able to provide for its self, in its early stages, within twelve years (1841 to 1853) the Church built and remodeled two churches, which cost about $16,000. The A.M.E. Church has given African people an independent hierarchy that recognizes our individuality, it has empowered African-Americans. In celebration, Methodists sought to render services to their people, schools were built and charitable programs were developed, aiming to lift the spirits of the new freed men. Educating their people, young and old, were

Such unity and self-determination was evidenced in 1801, when Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church published a hymnal by and for African Americans (Costen, 81). Hymns have served black people in their everyday lives and had and have

The primary goal of a sermon in church is to convince or persuade the congregation to turn to God and follow his ways and beliefs. A sermon is commonly broken up into several subsections beginning with “(1) an introduction ‘to establish a common ground of religious feeling’; (2) ‘a statement of the text’ which is often drawn directly from the Bible; (3) the ‘body of the sermon,’ which consists of repeated emotional climaxes; and (4) the ‘conclusion’ which resolves the emotional tension aroused by the sermon by drawing the sinners to God.” (Pipes 143). Based on these characteristics and King’s religious background and experience as a preacher, it is logical to argue that the structure of “A Letter from the Birmingham Jail” resembles that of a sermon which is aimed at an audience much larger than that of just eight clergymen. Through his brilliant use of persuasive methods and emotional appeal, Martin Luther King turns a simple response to a letter into a national cause for white support to combat segregation.

Gloucester (Doc C). This letter reveals that Rush was helping Gloucester purchase the freedom of his wife and kids which would cost roughly $1,500. It also reveals that friends of the religion sent donations to help free his family and build him a church. Later with the help of ministers like Rush the African Methodist Episcopal Church would be established by black minister Richard Allen. Angelina Grimke` was a female abolitionist who emphasized the ideologies of the Second Great Awakening.

The African Meeting House was used for many purposes during the 1800's that was essential to blacks in Boston and helped the mission of antislavery reformers. The meeting house first served as a church founded by Thomas Paul, an African American preacher, in 1805. The church was named the First African Baptist Church. Although, black Bostonians were able to attend white churches, they faced discrimination and were put in assigned seats in the balconies. The creation of the church gave blacks the opportunity to worship freely away from anti black sentiment. The meeting house was constructed entirely on black labor, but funds were raised in white and black communities. The church was meant to be only attended by the black population , but a

Nationally, in 1787, blacks broke away from the Methodist Church and in 1815 the African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church was founded. By 1846, the A. M. E. Church, had grown to about 300 churches with over 17,000 members. They had 176 clergy.14

David Walker, a black man born to a free mother and a slave father. His date of birth is unknown, but it is said to be around 1796. He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. He doesn't say much about Wilmington, but we know, in Wilmington, black slaves’ outnumbered whites and blacks and attended church regularly. His boyhood in Wilmington began to shape his views about slavery and religion. He left Wilmington a young literate man and moved to Charleston, South Carolina. Here, there was a large free black population. The free blacks there formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The existence of the church caused tensions to rise and authorities tried to suppress the church, which only made the blacks resist more. They were eventually

In 1816, Richard Allen founded the first African-American led church in the country, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first major religious denomination in the western world that originated because of sociological and not theological differences. It was the first African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the US. The church was established in what was known as the Blacksmith Shop Meeting House. “By 1786 blacks made up about 10 percent of the Methodist church in the United States, and though whites and blacks often worshiped together, blacks enjoyed no real freedom or equality. Segregated seating was typical; the area reserved for blacks was usually called the “Negro Pew” or the “African Corner.”

​The rise of African American churches played a vital role in advancing the Civil War because it brought the issue of morality into the slavery debate. Created in protest, the Black church, prior to the Civil War represented the first occasion of Black rebellion among the secret churches of the slave community, and in the liberated Black churches in the North. Black congregations nurtured a sense of hope and self-expression, laying the basis of Black power and freedom. They understood that the “…Christian Gospel was a gospel of liberation … and … refused to accept an interpretation of Christianity that was unrelated to civil freedom.” (Westley 1). Northern church members Richard Allen and Absalom Jones created the first African American church by walking out of a Methodist Episcopal Church in protest due to the discrimination they had experienced. They started the African Methodist Episcopal

I jumped at the opportunity to complete the extra credit assignment because of the topic. I have always wanted to attend an African American Baptist Church. I was raised Catholic in a predominantly white community and for the chance to experience something different was appealing. I’ve seen the stereotypes in movies and on TV about what an African American Baptist church looks like but I wanted to experience it myself. I wasn’t sure on what to expect but kept an open mind about the situation.