The Black
Church has been a cornerstone of African American community and activism for centuries, and its role has subjected it to repeated and vicious attacks from the original Klu Klux Klan of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, through the rise of the Second Klan in the 1920s and the
waves of riots and violence inflicted
upon African American communities across the country, to the
waves of violence against the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.