http://www.ame-church.com/

The AMEC grew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. When officials at St. George’s MEC pulled blacks off their knees while praying, FAS members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these members of St. George’s made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Although most wanted to affiliate with the Protestant Episcopal Church, Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodists. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor. To establish Bethel’s independence from interfering white Methodists, Allen, a former Delaware slave, successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia to form a new Wesleyan denomination, the AME.

The Church maintains 11 college and universities: Allen University, South Carolina; Campbell College, Mississippi; Daniel Payne College, Alabama; Edward Waters College, Florida; Kittrell College, North Carolina; Morris Brown College, Georgia; Paul Quinn College, Texas; Payne Theological Seminary, Ohio; Shorter College, Georgia; Turner Theological Seminary, Georgia; and Wilberforce University, Ohio.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has more than 2.5 million members.  The headquarters for the AME Church is located in Philadelphia, PA. 

http://www.amez.org

Officially born October 1796, the new Black denomination was chartered in 1801 and firmly established in 1820 when the leaders voted themselves out of the White Methodist Episcopal Church. The next year, church founders agreed to call the church the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America. But to distinguish this New York-based group from the Philadelphia Black Methodist movement which emerged about the same time, the word "Zion" was added to the title during the church's general conference in 1848.

With its identity problems resolved, the AME Zion Church made the salvation of the whole person--mind, body and spirit--its top priority. At the crux of its ministry lay racial justice, peace and harmony, thus earning it the title, the Freedom Church.

As the ministry expanded, so did the denomination's emphasis on education. "In order to succeed in American society as productive citizens, we [the newly freed slaves] need to become an educated citizenry," an early AME Zion member once said. In keeping with that goal, the Church maintains four colleges and universities today, which are Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill, S.C., and Lomax-Hannon Junior College in Greenville, Alabama, and A.M.E. Zion University in Monrovia, Liberia. Additionally it maintains two theological seminaries, Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC and Hood Speaks Theological Seminary in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has more than1.5 million members and has it’s headquarters in Charlotte, NC.

http://www.c-m-e.org/

The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, or the CME Church as it is commonly called, came into existence as a result of the movement from slavery to freedom.  During the years following the birth of Methodism, the denomination grew rapidly. The Methodist Episcopal Church South was an outgrowth of Wesley's Methodism.  Some Blacks, converted to Christianity by slave masters, accepted the Methodist doctrine as it was.  However, with the passage of time, the emancipation of Blacks from slavery created the desire by Blacks to have and control their own church.  This desire led formerly enslaved persons who had been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, to start their own independent religious organization.

Forty-one men who exemplified leadership qualities gathered together in Jackson, Tennessee on December 16, 1870.   With the advice and assistance of the white brethren of the M.E. Church South, the Black religious leaders organized the colored branch of Methodism.  On Tuesday, December 20, they adopted the Methodist South's Book of Discipline and on Wednesday, December 21, they elected two of their own preachers - William H. Miles of Kentucky and Richard H. Vanderhorst of Georgia - as their bishops.

The church maintains a publishing house in Memphis, TN, as well as Lane College in Jackson, TN; Texas College in Tyler, TX; Paine College in Augusta, GA; Phillips School of Theology in Atlanta, GA; and Miles College in Fairfield, AL.

The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church has more than 800,000 members.  The CME offices are in Memphis, TN.