After Emancipation, minister-turned-journalist Henry McNeal Turner used his faith in the will of Providence and the power of the black church to encourage political participation in the south. Turner, a popular preacher even before the Civil War, became the Union Army's first black chaplain once President Lincoln mustered black regiments. After the war, Turner, helped organize the Georgia Republican Party. Elected a state representative, but never allowed to serve, Turner's emphasis on black nationalism gradually alienated him from mainstream leaders but made him popular among the masses. Outside of politics, he and other church leaders put their efforts into church organizations. Grammar schools and universities, banks and insurance companies, printing presses, nursing homes and hospitals are all examples of institutions founded and maintained by black religious communities denied access by the society at large. Henry McNeal turner eventually became a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His philosophy and teachings encouraged followers to find God from within, thereby raising their opinions about themselves and the black race.