The new house was paid for in large measure by the white members of the church and by individuals in the community.

As soon as it was completed, the colored church moved into it with its pastor, board of deacons, committees of all sorts, and the whole machinery of church life went into action without a jar.

Similar accommodations occurred in all the states of the South.
The Methodists lost the greater part of their Negro membership to two organizations which came down from the North in 1865--the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion.

Large numbers also went over to the Northern Methodist Church.
After losing nearly three hundred thousand members, the Southern Methodists came to the conclusion that the remaining seventy-eight thousand Negroes would be more comfortable in a separate organization and therefore began in 1866 the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, with bishops, conferences, and all the accompaniments of the parent Methodist Church, which continued to give friendly aid but exercised no control.
For many years the Colored Methodist Church was under fire from the other Negro denominations, who called it the "rebel," the "Democratic," the "old slavery" church.
The Negro members of the Cumberland Presbyterians were similarly set off into a small African organization.

The Southern Presbyterians and the Episcopalians established separate congregations and missions under white supervision but sanctioned no independent Negro organization.
Consequently the Negroes soon deserted these churches and went with their own kind.
Resentment at the methods employed by the Northern religious carpetbaggers was strong among the Southern whites.