Leaders of America's four major black Baptist denominations  all of them members of the National Council of Churches  hope a historic joint board meeting in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 24-27 will forge a unified voice to address social and political issues affecting all blacks.
According to the NCC, as many as 10,000 delegates from the National Baptist Convention USA, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Baptist Convention and National Missionary Baptist Convention of America will meet together, the first such gathering since the groups began dividing nearly 100 years ago.
Leaders say the meeting is about finding common ground rather than reunification.
'A lot of times we're talking about the same things but don't always know it because we're in four different settings,' said the Rev. George Brooks, who heads the educational programs of the National Baptist Convention of America.
'There has to be more focused effort to include minorities in the mainstream of this nation's life,' NBCUSA's William Shaw said, 'in terms of ownership of economic resources, inclusion in the political structure, educational commitment, and changing the practices that make for the incarceration of so many people of color."
