National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
| National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. | |
|---|---|
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| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Baptist |
| Polity | Congregationalist |
| Founder | Rev. Elias Camp Morris |
| Origin | 1880 Montgomery, Alabama |
| Merger of |
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| Separations |
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| Congregations | 31,000 |
| Members | 7.5 million |
| Official website | www |
The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (National Baptist Convention) is the largest predominantly African-American Christian denomination in the United States. It is headquartered at the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The denomination claims approximately 31,000 congregations.
The Convention reports having an estimated 7.5 million members.
The root of cooperative efforts began in the Antebellum period. Both free blacks and slaves were welcomed into the Baptist Church by missionaries in the First Great Awakening, and the second Awakening in the early 19th century brought in more members. Independent Black Baptist churches were formed in Petersburg, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia before the American Civil War. Under the slave societies of the South, they had to belong to white Baptist associations. Black congregations were required by law to have white ministers and supervision by law, especially after the slave rebellion of Nat Turner in 1831.
The first attempts at wider black cooperative efforts began in the North, with Ohio and Illinois leading the way. In 1834 Black Baptists in Ohio formed the Providence Baptist Association. In 1838, following the lead of the Baptists of Ohio, Illinois Black Baptists formed the Wood River Baptist Association.
As early as 1840, Black Baptists sought to develop a cooperative movement beyond state lines. Baptists in New York and the Middle Atlantic states formed the American Baptist Missionary Convention. The spirit of cooperation beyond state lines soon spread westward. In 1864, during the Civil War, the Black Baptists of the West and South organized the Northwestern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.
In 1866, following the war, these two conventions met with the American Baptist Convention and formed the Consolidated American Baptist Convention. One of the great successes of the new Consolidated American Baptist Convention was the support given to black Baptists in the South to form state conventions. Black Baptists in the former Confederacy overwhelmingly left white-dominated churches to form independent congregations and get away from white supervision.
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Wikipedia