Another spiritual institution African Americans hid their Hoodoo practices was in the Sanctified Church started in Memphis, Tennessee. Bishop Charles Harrison Mason and other African American ministers founded the Church of God in Christ in the early twentieth century which has a predominantly African American membership. Bishop Charles Harrison Mason was known among the members of his congregation to heal church members using roots, herbs and anointing oil. Bishop Mason and other Pentecostal pastors were rootworkers and used spiritual tools to remove demons and curses off church members. The removal of evil spirits from church members in African Pentecostal churches involves prayer, playing African gospel music, anointing oils and other Hoodoo tools.
Author Zora Neal Hurston wrote in her book The Sanctified Church, the spiritual beliefs and conjure practices of the Black congregation in Sanctified Churches. African Americans talked about nailing a horse shoe over the door to ward off evil and making conjure balls to remove diseases. British historians traced the origins of the creation of conjure balls in Hoodoo to the West African practice of creating gris-gris charms and the Central African practice of creating minkisi containers.
As European spiritual merchants exploited hoodoo and turned it into just tricks and spells, African Americans moved more of the traditional Hoodoo practices of animal sacrifice, incorporating animal parts in spiritual work, Holy Ghost shouting, the ring shout, and other practices were synchronized with Christianity which took the Hoodoo practiced by African Americans underground. Some Sanctified Churches in African American communities continue to incorporate Hoodoo. African American religious institutions are not just places of worship and spirituality, but are also places to discuss injustices in their communities and how to unite to bring about political and spiritual transformations for African Americans.
