And the Negroes were, in this respect, perhaps no worse than those European immigrants who act upon the principle that bad manners are a proof of independence.
The year following emancipation was one of religious excitement for large numbers of the blacks.

Before 1865, the Negro church members were attached to white congregations or were organized into missions, with nearly always a white minister in charge and a black assistant.

With the coming of freedom the races very soon separated in religious matters.
For this there were two principal reasons: the Negro preachers could exercise more influence in independent churches; and new church organizations from the North were seeking Negro membership.

Sometimes Negro members were urged to insist on the right "to sit together" with the whites.

In a Richmond church a Negro from the street pushed his way to the communion altar and knelt.