During the recent Progressive National Baptist Convention in Louisville, Ky., more than 10,000 attendees approved 10 resolutions aimed at addressing a "national state of emergency" in black communities.

"If such casualties were being inflicted upon the majority race, or any race that commands respect and exercises extraordinary economic and political power, a national state of emergency would have been declared long ago," said Louisville Pastor C. Mackey Daniels, president of the 2.5 million-member denomination. "Our worship, praise, singing, sermonizing and mega-church building can no longer be ends within themselves. They must become the means to our people's survival and salvation."

The group's resolutions call for specific government actions as well as programs developed by local churches. For instance, churches were directed to start an "immediate and direct action campaign to stop the incarceration and killing of black youth."

Baptists called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public-health emergency to increase financing to combat AIDS among African Americans. They also want the U.S. Department of Justice to study whether police officers disproportionately target African-American motorists for traffic stops.

In addition, the group is looking to the United Nations to view the "massive death and dying of African Americans to be not merely a civil-rights issue but a human-rights issue."

"The language is strong, but it needs to be strong because of the serious issues we are facing," said delegate Michael Nabors of Detroit, Mich. "It's important for African Americans and all Americans to know that our people are hurting and being oppressed."

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