This dissertation argues that turn-of-the-twentieth-century black Protestantism shaped black politics in North Carolina in several crucial ways. During emancipation and Reconstruction, black North Carolinians interpreted their future in millennial terms. After Reconstruction, black Protestantism guided black political life in an increasingly hostile environment. Black ministers found ways to counter setbacks in the 1870s and white supremacy campaigns in the 1880s and 1890s. In the early twentieth century, after the disfranchisement of black voters and the introduction of Jim Crow segregation, African-American Protestant leaders reevaluated their theological beliefs and millennial expectations. I use a statewide multi-denominational approach, anchored in black-authored primary sources such as religious newspapers, theological journals, sermons, autobiographies, and institutional records. In order to examine the intricate and intimate relationship between black religion and politics, I pay careful attention to the politics of gender, temperance, black self-determination, and involvement in radical biracial political movements. Central to my approach are the realizations that theology mattered and that significant differences existed between black Protestant traditions. Perhaps most importantly, this dissertation’s focus on black religion and public life suggests alternate ways of handling the intersection of American religion and politics.