The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church or AME, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination. It is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded on racial rather than theological distinctions and has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of African Americans through social improvement, religious autonomy, and political engagement. Allen, a deacon in Methodist Episcopal Church, was consecrated its first bishop in 1816 by a conference of five churches from Philadelphia to Baltimore. The denomination then expanded west and south, particularly after the Civil War. By 1906, the AME had a membership of about 500,000, more than the combined total of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, making it the largest major African-American Methodist denomination.
The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church and congregation at 419 South 6th Street in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The congregation, founded in 1794, is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the nation. Its present church, completed in 1890, is the oldest church property in the United States to be continuously owned by African Americans. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
The term Black Church refers to the body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African-Americans, as well as their collective traditions and members. The term can also refer to individual congregations.
St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first church for African Americans in Nebraska, organized in North Omaha in 1867. It is located at 2402 North 22nd Street in the Near North Side neighborhood. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was constructed in the center of Omaha's North Side in the Prairie School architecture style. Prairie School architecture is rare, and this architectural gem in urban Nebraska is particularly unusual for being designed and built in the 1920s, after the Prairie Style's rapid loss of popularity beginning after 1914.
The St. Paul A.M.E. Church is a historic American Gothic Revival style African Methodist Episcopal Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. A red brick and frame structure built in 1884 by black masons, St. Paul's was the first independent congregation of African Americans in Raleigh and is the oldest African-American church in Wake County, North Carolina. Before the end of the Civil War, the future founders of St. Paul's had been slave members of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church. The members of the church began calling their congregation "St. Paul's" in 1848. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in November 1987 and is also a Raleigh Historic Landmark.
St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church in Urbana, Ohio, United States. Built in the Greek Revival style in 1876, it is home to a congregation that was founded in the mid-1820s.
St. Peter's AME Zion Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at 615 Queen Street in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. It was built between 1923 and 1942, on the site of the 1914 church building which was destroyed by fire in 1922. It is a large three bay by seven bay, rectangular brick church building in the Late Gothic Revival style. It features a gabled nave flanked by two-story truncated stair towers. Also on the property is the contributing 1926 parsonage; a 2 1/2-story, frame American Craftsman style dwelling. It is known within the denomination as the "Mother Church of Zion Methodism in the South," and the oldest existing African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the South.
Emmanuel AME Church, also known as Deliverance Temple Holy Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church building located at 710 Kent Street in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. The Gothic Revival building was constructed in 1888. The 30 inch walls were covered with stucco in 1962. Both the bricks and land for the church were donated by Richard B. Fitzgerald, a prominent African American brickmaker.
Goler Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, also known as Old Goler, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion church located at 630 Patterson Avenue in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina. It was built in 1918–1919, and is a rectangular brick building in the Late Gothic Revival style. It features a gable-front block flanked by two square brick towers and stained glass windows. A two-story annex was built in 1946. In 1942, the Goler Metropolitan AME Zion Church congregation split from the Goler Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
Goler Metropolitan AME Zion Church, originally known as East Fourth Street Baptist Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion church located at 1435 E. Fourth Street in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina. It was built in 1924, and is a front-gabled brick church with two prominent domed towers and flanking one-story hipped-roof wings in the Classical Revival style. The front facade features a prominent pedimented porch supported by stuccoed Doric order columns and Ionic order pilasters. The interior is based on the Akron Plan. The building was acquired by an African-American congregation split from the Goler Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1942. The congregation changed their name to Goler Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in 1953.
The British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church, Salem Chapel was founded in 1820 by African-American freedom seekers in St. Catharines, Ontario. It is located at 92 Geneva St., in the heart of Old St. Catharines. The church is a valued historical site due to its design, and its important associations with abolitionist activity.
Hayti, also called Hayti District, is the historic African-American community that is now part of the city of Durham, North Carolina. It was founded as an independent black community shortly after the American Civil War on the southern edge of Durham by freedmen coming to work in tobacco warehouses and related jobs in the city. By the early decades of the 20th century, African Americans owned and operated more than 200 businesses, which were located along Fayetteville, Pettigrew, and Pine Streets, the boundaries of Hayti.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 202 W. 12th Street in Coffeyville, Kansas, in the original black neighborhood of Coffeyville. It was built in 1907 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
The Bethel A.M.E. Church, known in its early years as Indianapolis Station or the Vermont Street Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Organized in 1836, it is the city's oldest African-American congregation. The three-story church on West Vermont Street dates to 1869 and was added to the National Register in 1991. The surrounding neighborhood, once the heart of downtown Indianapolis's African American community, significantly changed with post-World War II urban development that included new hotels, apartments, office space, museums, and the Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis campus. In 2016 the congregation sold their deteriorating church, which will be used in a future commercial development. The congregation built a new worship center at 6417 Zionsville Road in Pike Township, Marion County, Indiana.
St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. St. Mark's has played a central role in Duluth's African-American community for more than 125 years. While other black organizations have dissolved or moved to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area, St. Mark's has been a local mainstay.
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This first independent black denomination in the United States was founded in 1816 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Geer Cemetery is an abandoned African-American cemetery located on Colonial Street between McGill Place and Camden Avenue in northeast Durham, North Carolina. It has also been known as City Cemetery, Old City Cemetery, East Durham Cemetery, and Mason Cemetery. It currently occupies about 4 acres (1.6 ha), and contains the graves of over 1,500 African Americans, many born into slavery. It was the first cemetery for African Americans in Durham, and from 1876, when it opened, to 1924 it was the only one. In 1939 it was closed as overcrowded by the health department, although there was a burial in 1944. The city of Durham lists ownership of the cemetery as "Unknown".
