Southern Baptists have taken steps to repair their tarnished past. One of the biggest moves came about 10 years ago when the convention issued a resolution apologizing for slavery.
In addition, the denomination has 23 ethnic fellowships, of which the African American group is among the largest with nearly 300 churches.
Richard Harris, vice president of church planting for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the fellowship groups are an "integral part of our convention."
"They're Southern Baptists to the core," Harris said. "They just want to fellowship together because of their culture and history."
Anderson, who will usher in a new fellowship president at this year's convention, agreed.
"We wanted to share what we have in common as an ethnic body of people," he said.
Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville, said he still finds it unusual that blacks in particular would support a denomination that strongly supports President Bush, who received less than 10% of the black vote in the last election.
"The continued presence of African American churches in the Southern Baptist Convention is odd given the denomination's hardwiring to the far right of the Republican Party," Parham said.
But E. W. McCall Sr., pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in La Puente, Calif., said many of the convention's black members are Republicans who are frustrated with the Democratic Party's support of abortion and homosexuality.
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