The Virginia State Baptist Convention began in 1867 to support the formation and operation of black churches independent of white Baptist governance. A marginal group in the late colonial period, Baptists succeeded in converting slave and slave-masters alike so that by the middle of the nineteenth century Baptists had become a majority religious tradition in Virginia. There were at least six “independent” black congregations in the commonwealth at the beginning of the American Civil War (1861–1865). With the end of the war, black Baptists had a structure for continued religious independence and began to assert their freedom through institution building. In typical Baptist fashion, the primacy of the individual congregation in relationship with other congregations led to a need for larger organizational structures. By the late spring of 1867, a gathering of pastors and lay leaders in Portsmouth formed the Virginia Baptist State Convention to aid in mission and educational projects. At the same time, the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) enlarged its commitment to educating freedpeople in the state. By the turn of the twentieth century, black Baptists chose sides between full independence for black educational institutions (Virginia Baptist State Convention) and independent black congregations with white leadership at educational institutions (Baptist General Association of Virginia). The division resulted in two African American Baptist conventions that remain to the present day.
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