Answer: The National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA) is one of the largest predominately African-American denominations in the United States. In the late 1800s, African-American Baptists saw the need to create a national association of former slaves, Baptist in doctrine, who desired to unify to evangelize African-American communities within the United States and overseas. In 1880, 151 delegates, representing 11 states, met at the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention of the United States.

Due to education’s high priority among these African-American Christians, they wanted to incorporate educational goals. So in 1895 the American National Baptist Convention converged with the Baptist National Educational Convention. These two entities merged with the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention of the United States to form the National Baptist Convention of America.

In 1988 a disagreement arose with the National Baptist Convention, USA, a similar organization, over changing policies within the National Baptist Publishing Board. As a result, the National Baptist Convention of America chose to break that partnership and formed their own publishing cooperation: the National Missionary Baptist Convention. The two conventions remain separated to this day.

Their website states that the National Baptist Convention of America is made up of approximately 3.5 million members in more than 8,000 churches. The NBCA’s headquarters is in Shreveport, Louisiana. In order to further the goals of the National Baptist Convention, three boards were created: the Foreign Mission Board, the Home Mission Board, and the Educational Board, located in Washington, D.C.