Encyclopedia article about the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME Church), formerly the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, which is a historically African American denomination with more than 800,000 members in the United States. Formed in 1870 in Jackson, Tennessee, as a separate black denomination by the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was the first African American denomination established in the South. In 1956 the name change to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church not only signaled the church's repudiation of Jim Crow-era racial subordination but also highlighted a more ecumenical emphasis on religious, rather than racial, identity. Thereafter, the church became more active in the civil rights movement. Church polity and theology are consistent with other major American Methodist denominations, and the church participates in such ecumenical organizations as the National Council of Churches. The CME Church supports four colleges, including Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, and maintains missions in Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Liberia, and Nigeria.

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