Introduction: Quinton Dixie, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University.

In his annual address before the National Baptist Convention in 1900, Rev. Elias Camp Morris, the organization's president, expressed the eagerness with which he and his constituents welcomed the new century. He believed that the fledgling group could be a major catalyst for progress in the lives of black Americans if it did not limit its agenda to the spiritual realm. The National Baptist Convention, Morris said, stands for the complete development of the Negro as a man along all lines, beginning first with his religious life, and ending with the material, or business life. In order to achieve such a broad vision Morris believed the organizational infrastructure of the convention needed to be modernized and brought in line with contemporary business practices. Not only would a lean, tightly-organized unit result in a more efficient, effective, and fiscally-responsible institution, but he also thought it would send a message to white Americans that blacks were capable of managing businesses, governing their own organizations, and running their own affairs in general.

Morris' efforts to make the convention more responsive to the material needs of the black masses resulted in the 1897 formation of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Society by black Baptists who felt the organization was drifting from its appropriate work of winning souls for Christ. In 1915, another group walked away from the convention and formed the National Baptist Convention of America (Un-incorporated) in response to Morris' dream of incorporating all the various units of the National Baptist Convention under the umbrella of one charter that would provide a higher degree of oversight and accountability. Clearly, many black Baptists believed that modernization of organizational practices would result in a loss of local autonomy and organizational freedom.