1870

Black churches serve prominently as a refuge for Black Georgians as they deal with the trauma of slavery, injustice, and violence after Emancipation. Frustrated by the lack of support from white Southern Methodist leaders and by intra-racial conflicts, Isaac Anderson and other Black Methodist leaders found the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and its formation is integral to his election to the Georgia legislature. White Southern Methodists express concern over prominent AME Church leaders like Henry M. Turner and Tunis Campbell Sr., who are also ministers and politicians, and this concern leads Southern Methodist leaders to reluctantly accept Anderson’s political activity fearing Turner and Campbell’s influence in Georgia politics among Black Methodists.