The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has a long history of persevering against racial persecution, CNN reports. The congregation began as members of Charleston's Methodist Episcopal Church in 1791, but withdrew over disputed burial grounds under the leadership of Morris Brown and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1821, Denmark Vesey, one of the church's founders and a former slave, began organizing a slave riot in Charleston but was thwarted when authorities were informed of the plot.