 They were the African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, founded in New York City; the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (which was sponsored by the white Methodist Episcopal Church, South), and the well-funded Methodist Episcopal Church (Northern white Methodists).By 1871, the Northern Methodists had 88,000 black members in the South, and had opened numerous schools for them.The blacks during Reconstruction Era were politically the core element of the Republican Party, and the ministers played a powerful political role.