The Black Church (Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that minister primarily to African Americans, as well as these churches collective traditions and members. Black churches emerged out of the pervasive racial separation embedded in the history and culture of the United States.
The first generation of black churches were formed before 1800 by free black people.The third oldest black Baptist church in the in the United States, the First African Baptist Church was founded in 1790 by Peter Durett. As noted by theologian James Cone,"Black churches are very powerful forces in the African American community and always have been. Because religion has been that one place where you have an imagination that no one can control. And so, as long as you know who you are a human being and nobody can take that away from you, then God is that reality in your life that enables you to know that. "