Baptist churches became popular among African Americans in the South in part because they offered more membership rights than other denominations. Until the nineteenth century, and unlike the more-elite Episcopal church, Baptist churches routinely offered free and enslaved blacks full membership, and sometimes roles like exhorter or deacon, in their congregations; they restricted leadership roles like elder and pastor to whites. Until 1831, blacks were also free to lead their own separate Baptist congregations, providing a level of autonomy for African American communities nonexistent in most other areas of southern society. After Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831, white Virginians become fearful that violence would result from assembling black communities, so the General Assembly passed laws restricting enslaved and free blacks from worshipping without white supervision.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) A Houston-area bar owner called Wednesday the start of a new era after being closed for nearly a year due to pandemic restrictions.
According to the Texas Restaurant Association, statewide about 11,000 restaurants statewide closed permanently due to the pandemic, which is about 20% of Texas restaurants.
Last year, thousands of Texas bars were allowed to reopen through a restaurant loophole. However, some bars like The Shiloh Club in the Houston Heights area, were forced to close indefinitely. We had calls from our customers asking, Well, why don t you sell food? Well, we don t have a kitchen, co-owner Anthony Shorrosh explained. We didn t feel comfortable saying, Okay, I m going to charge someone, say $10 for a bag of chips and you get two beers. It wasn t what we wanted to do. We wanted to follow the system. Do it right.