Religious institutions serve spiritual as well as social needs, providing spaces for worship and connection, and establishing networks of care for those in need. Many also serve as schools for religious or secular education, and as bases for political activism and moral leadership in the struggle for freedom, civil rights, and social justice. Spiritual beliefs and faith practices offer hope and comfort, sustain the will to resist oppression, and instill values of self-determination and pride.

“We considered it our duty to devise a plan in order to build a house of our own, to worship God under our own vine and fig tree.”—Richard Allen and Daniel Coker, Founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The land on which they built their first church, purchased in 1787, is the oldest piece of real estate in the US continuously owned by African Americans.

Bridget “Biddy” Mason helped found the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles (FAME) in 1872. Enslaved in MS, Mason traveled with her enslaver to CA in 1851 and won a landmark court case to gain freedom for herself and her daughters. With money she earned as a nurse and midwife, Mason invested in property, amassing a sizable fortune. Church members gathered in her home; now the site of Biddy Mason Park. In 1888 she helped purchase a nearby church building on Azusa Street.

The First African Methodist Episcopal Church of LA grew with the African American community during the late 1900s as migrants moved west in search of better economic opportunities and freedom from racially oppressive conditions in the South. The magnificent church buildings, symbols of the financial prosperity of many congregants, have been places of refuge from racial discrimination and of freedom to express an African American style of worship. Nearby industrialization led the church to move.

In 1968 the cornerstone was laid for FAME’s current building on affluent South Harvard Boulevard. Congregants advocate for political representation, economic development, and social justice. With ties to organizations like the NAACP, church leaders have engaged in social activism and empowered the African American community in LA. These Civil Rights activities established FAME as a highly visible forum for national issues and a critical stop on the campaign trail for candidates seeking support.

A cultural landmark in the historically Black neighborhood of Tremé, Saint Augustine Catholic Church embodies the complex racial and religious heritage of New Orleans. When it opened in 1842, Saint Augustine served a racially diverse parish that included Creoles of color (free people of African and European ancestry), enslaved people, and white people. “We have always been like one family, going to the same church, sitting in the same pews…”—Sister Mary Bernard Diggs, 1894

Founded at Saint Augustine Church in 1842 by Henriette Delille, a Catholic nun and Creole of color, the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family is the 2nd oldest congregation of African American nuns in the US. They ran a school for children of color; ministered to the poor, sick, and elderly in the Tremé; and served across the South and in Central America and Nigeria. In 1988 Henriette Delille became the first African American officially considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church.

Saint Augustine parishioners and other Creole residents of Tremé formed the Citizens’ Committee to fight segregationist Jim Crow laws. In 1892, as part of a protest organized by the Committee, Homer Plessy—a Creole of color and member of Saint Augustine Church—was arrested for sitting in the white section of a segregated railroad car. In 1896 the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, establishing the “separate but equal” justification for segregation.

Islam has influenced the way many African Americans interpret the world and express their faith in the Unseen. As a spiritual path and way of life, it represents a radical departure from the ideological and theological foundation of Christianity embraced by the majority of African Americans. While Islam shares with Christianity the fundamental belief in monotheism, its vibrant material culture reveals a way of life aligned with traditions established since its inception in 7th century Arabia.

In 1962, a group of African American Muslims founded the Dar-ul-Islam Movement (The Dar) in Brooklyn, NY. By the 1970s, the Dar included a federation of mosques nationwide, united in its strong adherence to the Qur’an and Sunnah (traditions) of Prophet Muhammad. Like most African American Muslims, the Dar also considered music and poetry central to its community life. This poster promotes an event in Norfolk, VA featuring artistic genres, from movies and music to poetry and even martial arts.

American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, seen her posing with the fencing gear she wore during the Olympic Games, was the first Muslim women to represent the United States while wearing a hijab. She won a bronze medal in Team Sabre at the 2016 Rio Olympics. This was a significant milestone for many in the Muslim community.

For over forty years, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975) led the Nation of Islam (NOI), which served as a spiritual sanctuary and self-help organization for millions of African Americans. Its religious, educational, and economic institutions promoted unity, pride, and moral discipline and helped its members overcome poverty and other social ills. Masjid Wali Muhammad is home to the first African American Muslim congregation. Malcolm X was a minister at this Masjid.

During the 20th century, a growing number of African Americans converted from Christianity to Islam. The largest number of converts were members of the Nation of Islam (NOI), est. 1930, of which Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X were prominent members. After the death of leader Elijah Muhammad in 1975, his son Wallace Muhammad led the organization toward a Qur’anic-based understanding of Islam, practiced within an American context. He was the first Muslim to deliver the invocation in the US Senate.

Imam Warith Deen Mohammed was a Qur’anic scholar. He led the largest conversion of African Americans to Islam in the late 1970s. This book of Imam Mohammed’s teachings (inset) discusses the foundational pillars of Islam—belief in one God, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca. He was appointed minister of Temple No. 12 in Philidelphia in 1958. “Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others share basic values and a belief in a virtuous life that wants justice and peace for all.”

After Elijah Muhammad’s death many NOI members converted to mainstream Islam and abandoned their belief that God came in the person of Fard Muhammad, the organization’s founder. Other members, led by Minister Louis Farrakhan, continued to follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, including the social reform ideas and practices of the historic NOI and its economic and educational programs. NOI members follow traditions of the Islamic faith as taught by Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan.

“We look with eyes of faith beyond our human tragedy and see God…The voice of God sets our unconquerable soul on fire."—Nannie Helen Burroughs. Working with the National Baptist convention, and with supporters like Carter G. Woodson, Burroughs was able to raise the funds necessary to found the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC in 1909. Her goal was that each student become “the fiber of a sturdy moral, industrious, and intellectual woman.”

Ruby Penn wore this usher badge as a member of the Senior Usher Board of New Bethany Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. She was a helper of the church and its congregation from the late 1950s to 2003. New Bethany was founded in 1935 by the Reverend Dr. John Jackson Koger.

This ceremonial ram’s horn, or shofar, was used at the Beth Shalom synagogue in Chicago. The Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation traces its roots to the Commandment Keepers, a group of Black Jews who sought to forge a new spiritual and cultural identity for African Americans.