Black Churches 145Pan-African political discourse by way of Jewish notions of
identity. Ultimately, he maintains that discussions and ex-
changes of ideas between both groups must be cherished
and upheld.
See also: African Diaspora; Atlantic Creoles; Atlantic Slave
TradeDarrell NewtonBibliography
Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. New York: Monthly Review Press,
1989.
Bhabha, Homi. Th e Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.
Gilroy, Paul. Th e Black Atlantic-Modernity and Double Conscious-
ness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Hall, Stuart. “Th e Whites of their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the
Media.” Th e Media Reader. London: BFI, 1990.Black Churches
Th e expression “black churches,” also referred to as “the
black church,” has been used to refer to four groups of orga-
nizations: denominations founded by, formed of, and led by
blacks; black congregations that belong to white denomi-
nations; independent congregations; and loose fellowships
of black churches. Th is entry makes reference only to the
major black denominations: Methodist, Baptist, Holiness,
and Pentecostal.
During enslavement, Africans were forced to worship
with their masters. Blacks were segregated within the white
churches and were not free to worship God according to
their culture. In time, however, enslaved people began wor-
shipping in secret prayer meetings, escaping the supervi-
sion of their masters.
Between 1773 and 1775, Southern slaves founded the
fi rst black (Baptist) church in Silver Bluff , South Carolina.
Similarly, in 1794, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, in
opposition to mistreatment at St. George’s Methodist Epis-
copal Church, organized St. Th omas African Episcopal
Church and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Twenty-two years later, Allen
organized other Methodist congregations into the African
Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the fi rst black de-
nomination in America. Black Methodists in New York also
became weary of prejudice; Peter Williams Sr. and James
Varick, among others, organized the African MethodistAfrica, western Europe, and America. Simultaneously, the
Black Atlantic describes the development of black identity
as an ongoing process that is stimulated by travel and the
exchange of artistic endeavor. Th ese same identities have
been compared to the histories of Europe and their places
within modern history. Furthermore, black people are, like
those in European cultures, fi rmly connected to notions of
modernity. Th e notion of the Black Atlantic also examines
how the abduction of blacks from Africa and subsequent
notions of racism and oppression have inspired various
artists to develop expressions that help express ideologies
of freedom. Although some early expressions of self were
forbidden for slaves, music was oft en allowed as a means
of expression, thereby infl uencing other forms of art and
expression. Visual culture also helped to push the limits of
black expression, forming a subcultural or countercultural
presence within the Western world.
Th e premise also argues that it is important to move
beyond the confi nes of nationality and ethnicity. Each is
considered too constraining to the endless possibilities of
self-defi nition. Although many black cultures from around
the Atlantic Ocean in Europe, the Caribbean, and America
have been constructed as a part of national cultures, creat-
ing such identities as African American, Gilroy posits the
notion that black intellectuals have examined the West-
ern world on a more transnational basis, considering their
countries of origin as unimportant by comparison. Under-
standing the impact of slavery on the West is essential to
understanding Gilroy’s notions of double consciousness,
fi rst discussed by W. E. B. Du Bois. Many of this same black
intelligentsia have not only defended aspects of the West;
they have also been its harshest critics. Gilroy argues that
modernity must not only acknowledge the subjugation of
slavery, but also understand how this phenomenon creates
the need for a double consciousness, a consciousness that
was characteristic of those black intellectuals seeking to
explore the Diaspora. Gilroy also argues that the develop-
ment of black culture has depended on music as a binding
mechanism for black people everywhere. Gospel, rock and
roll, rap, and hip-hop all expose how multiple cultures of
blackness draw artistic and intrinsic value from each other,
making the notion of blackness all the more complex and
engaging. However, Gilroy would argue that these notions
of diasporic identity are never static or “pure”; instead there
are hybrid and fl uid, always reforming. He also argues that
the very notion of diasporic thinking was adopted into