The National Baptist Convention, USA, more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention (NBC USA or NBC), is a Baptist Christian denomination headquartered at the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tennessee and affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. It is also one of the largest predominantly and traditionally African American churches in the United States, and was the second largest Baptist denomination in the world in 2016.
Name The official, full name of the Christian denomination is the National Baptist Convention of the United States America, and it has been incorporated as the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Individuals and organizations affiliated or separate from the denomination commonly refer to it as the National Baptist Convention or National Baptist Convention, USA.
History
Origins
The root of cooperative efforts amongst black Baptists began in the Antebellum period. Both free blacks and slaves were welcomed into the Baptist movement by missionaries in the First Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening.James Barnett Taylor, Virginia Baptist Ministers (1859) pp 57, 60, 71, 83 online edition Independent black Baptist churches were formed in Petersburg, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia before the American Civil War.Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South (1979) Under the slave societies of the South, they had to belong to white Baptist associations. Predominantly black congregations were required by law to have white ministers and supervision by law, especially after the slave rebellion of Nat Turner in 1831.Raboteau (1979), Slavery is a Religion
The first attempts at wider black Baptist cooperative efforts began with Ohio and Illinois. In 1834, black Baptists in Ohio formed the Providence Baptist Association. In 1838, black Baptists in Illinois formed the Wood River Baptist Association.
In 1840, black Baptists developed a cooperative movement beyond state lines. Baptists in New York and the Middle Atlantic states formed the American Baptist Missionary Convention. During the American Civil War in 1864, black Baptists of the West and South organized the Northwestern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Following the war in 1866, these two conventions met with the American Baptist Convention and formed the Consolidated American Baptist Convention. The new Consolidated American Baptist Convention began with supporting black Baptists in the South in the remains of the Confederacy.
After emancipation and with support from the Consolidated Convention, black Baptists formed their own state conventions, originally including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Despite this work, regionalism continued among black Baptists. In 1873, the black Baptists of the West formed the General Association of the Western States and Territories, and in 1874 the East organized the New England Baptist Missionary Convention. This continued regionalism and other factors caused the decline and eventual demise of the Consolidated American Baptist Convention.
According to historian Wilson Fallin Jr., black preachers interpreted the American Civil War as:
Convention founding In 1880, about 150 Baptist pastors met in Montgomery, Alabama, forming the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and electing William H. McAlpine as their president. This formation was somewhat a result of the demise of the Consolidated American Baptist Convention, as this death created a vacuum in mission work. In response to this void, William W. Colley of Virginia, who had served as a missionary to Nigeria under the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1870s, called for black Baptists to meet in Montgomery, Alabama to organize a national convention for extensive foreign missionary work.
In 1886, William J. Simmons of Kentucky led the formation of the American National Baptist Convention.Stephen C. Finley, Torin Alexander, African American Religious Cultures, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2009, p. 257 In 1893, W. Bishop Johnson of Washington, D.C. led the formation of the National Baptist Education Convention, creating two more conventions. On September 24, 1895 at the Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, these three conventions fused into the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America,George Thomas Kurian, Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Volume 5, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2016, p. 1595 with the three former conventions serving as the three boards of the convention: foreign missions, home missions, and education.
Convention splits In 1897, during the Elias Camp Morris administration, a group of National Baptist pastors left the convention and formed the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention. The separation was centered on two issues: the location of the foreign mission board and greater cooperation with White Baptists. During the same administration one year prior, Charles Harrison Mason and Charles Price Jones preached Wesleyan-Holiness doctrine in local Baptist churches, leading to their expulsion; these two would then become the founders of the Church of God in Christ and Church of Christ (Holiness).
The second major split came in 1915 over the ownership and operation of the National Baptist Publishing Board. The National Baptist Publishing Board was the most successful agency, led by R. H. Boyd. Leaders and pastors of the convention became suspicious of the actions of the board when they did not receive the reports they thought were due them, and a debate ensued.
Those who supported Boyd's view that the board was independent of the convention formed the National Baptist Convention of America. It became known as the Unincorporated Convention (now the National Baptist Convention of America, International). Because of the question of incorporation, leaders who remained in the original convention led a movement to incorporate their organization. The constitution was amended in 1916 and the convention was later incorporated, taking the name of National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
During the Joseph Jackson administration, a third split occurred over tenure and lack of support for the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, known for increased public activism, demonstrations, and protests was highly controversial in many Baptist churches, as ministers often preached spiritual salvation as opposed to political activism.
Jackson had supported the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956, but by 1960 told members they should not become involved in civil rights activism. Jackson was a close ally of Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley and Chicago Democrats. He opposed the public activism of Martin Luther King Jr. and his aide, the young Jesse Jackson Sr., (no relation to Joseph Jackson). Gardner C. Taylor of New York challenged Jackson for the presidency and lost.
After Jackson was re-elected and following a violent dispute at the convention involving one death, a group led by L. Venchael Booth formed a new convention at the Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1961, naming themselves the Progressive National Baptist Convention. They supported the extensive activism of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and established ecumenical relations with the American Baptist Churches USA.
In 1992, Paul S. Morton of New Orleans, Louisiana formed a fellowship within the convention named the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, exploring spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, exclamatory worship, etc. Its leadership later separated completely from the National Baptist Convention, USA after discrimination from the NBC's leadership,Sherry S. DuPree (13 September 2013). African-American Holiness Pentecostal Movement: An Annotated Bibliography. Taylor & Francis. p. 347. . Retrieved 11 September 2020. becoming one of the largest Full Gospel movements and one of the fastest growing new Baptist denominations in the United States.
In 2005, the National Baptist Convention of America, Progressive National Baptists, and National Missionary Baptists created the Joint National Baptist Convention with NBC USA, establishing a joint agenda for African American Baptists. By 2023, the conventions announced another joint session, held in January 2024. During this session, the four conventions were joined by President Dr. Gina Stewart of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, who became the first woman pastor to preach during the Joint National Baptist Convention.
Racial reconciliation From 2015 to 2016, President Jerry Young collaborated with the Southern Baptist Convention on racial reconciliation. Meeting with President Ronnie Floyd of the SBC, 10 pastors from each convention were assembled to discuss race relations; in 2016, Young revealed several difficulties surrounding racial reconciliation to The New York Times, stating:
Floyd, describing 2015 as a "historic year of progress in racial healing," with the SBC and NBC collaborations, succeeds the election of Fred Luter Jr. as the Southern Baptist Convention's first African American president, alongside the adoption of an informal name, "Great Commission Baptists" which gained significant adoption by 2020.
Internal reform In January 2025, President Boise Kimber's presidential administration began an internal reformation by promoting Christian education, young pastors and other Christian leaders, and women in ministry. At the 2025 Annual Session in September, on September 9, Tracey L. Brown became the first woman to preach at any NBC USA Annual Session. During the session, Kimber also addressed the National Baptist Convention's commitment to social justice advocacy.
Statistics According to a census published by the Baptist World Alliance in 2023, it self-reported a total of 21,145 churches and 8,415,100 members, an increase since 2010's 10,358 churches and 5,197,512 members, according to a separate study by the Association of Religion Data Archives. In another study by the World Council of Churches, the NBC had an estimated international membership of 7,500,000. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020, its membership was 1,567,741 in 2,530 U.S. churches.
Overall, the National Baptist Convention continues to remain one of the largest historically and predominantly African American or Black Christian denominations in the United States; separated bodies, such as the theologically conservative-to-moderate National Baptist Convention of America, have stagnated in membership (2000's 3,500,000 members across roughly 8,000 churches to 2022's 3,500,000 members across 4,000 churches) and the theologically moderate-to-liberal Progressive National Baptist Convention (2009's 1,010,000 members in 1,500 churches to 2022's 1,500,000 members in 1,362 churches) has increased according to the Baptist World Alliance. In contrast, ARDA's 2020 study documented the National Missionary Baptists as the largest predominantly black Baptist denomination in the United States, with the NBC USA second.