African Methodist Episcopal Church - Timeline Event

Richard Allen

1816

Although the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) officially formed in 1816, its origins stem from a 1787 incident. Blacks and whites were experiencing tension in St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. One Sunday morning in November, a white trustee tried to pull Richard Allen’s friend, Absalom Jones, from his knees as Allen, Jones, and other blacks were praying in the white section. They finished praying and walked out. That year, Allen called a meeting of prominent black Methodists from the Northeast. In 1794, he established Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Frustrated with the prevalence of white control, Allen and others formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church (commonly called the A.M.E.) as a new denomination in 1816. Representatives elected Richard Allen as the first bishop. Under his leadership, the A.M.E. grew and spread throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

Today, it is the oldest African-American denomination that still exists in the United States.

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