Check.Church

National Baptist Convention of America

Baptist · 1915 · United States

The 1915 division over ownership and control of R. H. Boyd's National Baptist Publishing Board: the board's party organized separately (unincorporated), the continuing convention incorporated — a governance dispute over accountability, litigated until both principals' deaths in 1921.

National Baptist Convention of America was formed in 1915. National Baptist Convention of America continues today. National Baptist Convention of America's institutional line runs back through National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., Southern Baptist Convention, Triennial Convention, Particular Baptists, Congregationalists, Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.

Between the post-apostolic church and National Baptist Convention of America stand 7 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed
In 1915
Family
Baptist
Region
United States
Key figures
R. H. Boyd
Cause tags
Governance
Also known as
NBCA; National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc.

What it separated from

On the tree

National Baptist Convention of America and its institutional line back to the post-apostolic churchAD 33The church at Pentecost: On divine groundThe church at Pentecost: on divine groundtoday10042443145110541534158116331814184518951915The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchDepartureChurch of the East (Church of the East)Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchDepartureThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchDepartureOriental Orthodoxy (Oriental Orthodox)Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxEastern Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodox)Eastern OrthodoxyEastern OrthodoxRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismNot gatheredChurch of England (Anglican)Church of EnglandAnglicanCongregationalists (Congregational)CongregationalistsCongregationalParticular Baptists (Baptist)Particular BaptistsBaptistTriennial Convention (Baptist)Triennial ConventionBaptistSouthern Baptist Convention (Baptist)Southern BaptistConventionNot gatheredNational Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (Baptist)National BaptistConvention, USA, Inc.BaptistNational Baptist Convention of America (Baptist)National BaptistConvention of AmericaBaptist

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2. Dashed gray boxes mark the institutional line after the apostles, shown as departure; no line of descent is drawn from Pentecost. A verdict appears on a box once its section is published.

Adherents

About 3,100,000 adherents (self-reported claim, date not stated by the source).

A figure the body itself has stated, often years old, with no census apparatus behind it.

Source: Britannica ('early 21st century')

Sources

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-31.