Article Title

U.S. African American Denomonations in Cuba

Authors

Jualynne E. Dodson, University of Colorado at Boulder

Abstract

Currently there are two Protestant traditions in Cuba whose organizational homes are lodged in the African American Christian community ofthe United States. The Mt. Sinai Holy Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention are two predominately African American U.S. denominations with congregations located on the island. The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church also had Cuban churches and was the first "Black Church" to organize there.

The relationship between U.S. Protestants of African ancestry and AfroCubans is an unspoken, and relatively unknown, international alliance. Isolated from dialogue with Cubans, most contemporary U.S. generations know nothing about links between the two diaspora communities and specifically links by way of Protestantism. Some tend to assume Cubans are White as well as Catholic - or since the 1959 Revolution "atheist." Not only are Cubans largely a brown-skinned people, there are Cuban Protestants-albeit a numerical minority; and at least two African American denominations of the U.S. have had an alliance with their southern kin for fifty years or more.

Recommended Citation

Dodson, Jualynne E. (1994) "U.S. African American Denomonations in Cuba," Contributions in Black Studies: Vol. 12, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/vol12/iss1/4