In his poem “We Wear the Mask,” Paul Lawrence Dunbar describes how racial minorities must cover their pain as they maneuver throughout a majority world that misunderstands them. The Colored Methodist Episcopal church began as an offshoot of a predominantly white denomination, but because of ongoing racism and marginalization, the church began to exercise its own independence and work for justice reforms.

Alicia Jackson recounts the founding and history of this predominantly African-American denomination to illustrate how Christians of color learned to fight for their full dignity as image-bearers.