FOR some time I have thought of the propriety of writing this little volume, in order to diffuse certain information among the members and friends of our Church, and others, who have a desire to know something concerning the Church. It is evident that many things have been said and done to place the C. M. E. Church in a "false light" before the religious world. It is expedient, therefore, that some one step forward and speak in defense of her cause, her good name, and her divine objects. This is a progressive age. All things seem to be on an onward march. New developments are being made daily. There is much information to be gained from all sources. Ample fields are spread before us, in which we can labor and learn much to our own benefit, as well as for future generations. Persons wishing to become members of any organization should, in the first place, know its name, and, as far as practicable, acquaint themselves with the benefits to be derived therefrom, learn of its requirements, decide as to whether or not it will suit their ideas. Having done this, they can then decide whether or not they will conform to such regulations. With such information, they can be fully prepared to exercise a proper judgment in their choice. In this little volume I have tried to be as plain as possible, and to so arrange everything as to make it easily understood by all. I desired to have a brief sketch of all the Annual Conferences; but, failing to receive the information desired, I was (to my regret) compelled to omit some of them, and leave off the statistics altogether. The paper prepared by Brother R. T. Moss cannot fail to give general satisfaction to all who read it.

This is a handbook for members of this church. It was intended to be in the home of every member and to be studied. It also explains how the church is legitimate, being descended directly from Methodism

As early as the 1780s, African Americans told stories that enabled them to survive and even thrive in the midst of unspeakable assault. Tracing previously unexplored narratives from the late eighteenth century to the 1920s, Laurie Maffly-Kipp brings to light an extraordinary trove of sweeping race histories that African Americans wove together out of racial and religious concerns. Asserting a role in God's plan, black Protestants sought to root their people in both sacred and secular time. A remarkable array of chroniclers—men and women, clergy, journalists, shoemakers, teachers, southerners and northerners—shared a belief that narrating a usable past offered hope, pride, and the promise of a better future. Combining Christian faith, American patriotism, and racial lineage to create a coherent sense of community, they linked past to present, Africa to America, and the Bible to classical literature. From collected shards of memory and emerging intellectual tools, African Americans fashioned stories that helped to restore meaning and purpose to their lives in the face of relentless oppression. In a pioneering work of research and discovery, Maffly-Kipp shows how blacks overcame the accusation that they had no history worth remembering. African American communal histories imagined a rich collective past in order to establish the claim to a rightful and respected place in the American present. Through the transformative power of storytelling, these men and women led their people—and indeed, all Americans—into a more profound understanding of their interconnectedness and their prospects for a common future.

Carter G. Woodson's classic text on the emergence of African American churches, chronicling their story out of the eighteenth-century evangelical revivals and their transformations through the nineteenth and early twentieth century, is important for reasons other than "black church" history. With the exception of recent books, such as C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya's "The Black Church in the African-American Experience," Woodson's text remains one of the best overviews of the topic. But Woodson's text is also a significant account of the ways in which Christian-based instruction and socialization shaped not only class divisions and vetted leadership among, but also shaped who/what became the "Negro/Colored/Black/African American." For even the "Father of Black History," as Woodson is often called, could not escape the spell casted by the prevailing Christian ideology of his time, and in the earlier periods he investigated. In fact, Woodson viewed "Christianity [as] a rather difficult religion for [the] undeveloped mind [of the enslaved African] to grasp," and never questioned this Christianity or probed the African basis of rituals and ideas among the enslaved and the emancipated. Instead, Woodson extols the virtues of Christianity among the converted, and the men who established the various churches in African descended communities, including the educative, social, economic, and political roles played by these institutions after the U. S. Civil War. There is little here about those who adhered to spiritual or religious practices and ideas that remained as close to Africa as possible. For Woodson, then, the ministry was one of the highest callings and occupations to which African American male leaders could aspire, and from which they accrued prominence within their communities at a time when religious instruction was the primary schooling option available. These "educated Negroes," as Woodson called them, were now armed with the Christian religion, Christian names, and a dream to partner (in an inferior position) with the dominant values and views of white society, which all created sectarianism and, eventually, two divergent visions among African descended peoples in North America. Nineteenth century converts split along "class" lines, and urbanized elites developed a Christian distaste for their kinfolk who continued to engage in African-based rituals and practices, such as the ring shout. By the first quarter of the nineteenth century, these elites began to seek equal rights and full acceptance by whites-thus the need to distance themselves from things "African" and despite the fact that a few church organizations kept the term "African" as part of their name. The majority of the African-based community saw racism and its insidiousness as deeply rooted in their fight for human rights, while the elites viewed slavery and discrimination as obstacles which prevented "their" particular progress rather than a collective advancement. Since Woodson, writing in the first quarter of the twentieth century, had access to individuals who were either enslaved or children of the enslaved, his account is still therefore relevant as both a source and as a story that captures some of the foregoing processes in African and African American history.

Contributions by Ryan L. Fletcher, Darren E. Grem, Paul Harvey, Alicia Jackson, Ted Ownby, Otis W. Pickett, Arthur Remillard, Chad Seales, and Randall J. Stephens Over more than three decades of teaching at the University of Mississippi, Charles Reagan Wilson's research and writing transformed southern studies in key ways. This volume pays tribute to and extends Wilson's seminal work on southern religion and culture. Using certain episodes and moments in southern religious history, the essays examine the place and power of religion in southern communities and society. It emulates Wilson's model, featuring both majority and minority voices from archives and applying a variety of methods to explain the South's religious diversity and how religion mattered in many arenas of private and public life, often with life-or-death stakes. The volume first concentrates on churches and ministers, and then considers religious and cultural constructions outside formal religious bodies and institutions. It examines the faiths expressed via the region's fields, streets, homes, public squares, recreational venues, roadsides, and stages. In doing so, this book shows that Wilson's groundbreaking work on religion is an essential part of southern studies and crucial for fostering deeper understanding of the South's complicated history and culture.