Although the event was earlier announced to have been cancelled, the meeting between Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and more than 100 black pastors pushed through on Monday in Trump Tower in New York City.
The meeting was originally billed as an endorsement from the group of pastors, but when many said they were only planning to have a conversation with him the press conference was cancelled, Newsmax reported.
However, the two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Trump reportedly "went so well" that that the pastors decided to agree to meet the media later.
Darrell Scott, pastor of New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who arranged the meeting and is a Trump supporter, said Trump expressed his concerns for African Americans, including a jobless rate over 50 percent.
Scott said several of the pastors endorsed Trump while others said they would go home and pray on their best course of action.
A reporter asked Trump about the "backlash" from several black ministers who condemned the meeting.
"I don't think we have backlash," Trump responded. "I saw love in that room. I see love everywhere I go."
One pastor told the press conference that the concern raised by his fellow pastors about Trump's racial slurs "was addressed head-on."
Asked if he had given a financial contribution to any of the churches, Trump responded, " No, I haven't. Zero."
Trump was earlier forced to cancel the press conference after some of the pastors who were supposedly part of the event complained that they did not know they were supposed to endorse the Republican presidential bet.
Bishop Corletta Vaughn, Senior Pastor of The Holy Ghost Cathedral, for instance, said she has no plan of supporting Trump.
"Trump is an insult and embarrassment.. But he represents the country we have become. Zero experience. Flaunting a ticket of unbridled bigotry, sexism, racism and everything that is wrong with America," Vaughn said on her Facebook page, as quoted by The Express.
Bishop Clarence McClendon, a pastor well-known for his role in the reality show The Preachers of LA, meanwhile said he was informed that the event was just a dialogue with Trump.
"The meeting was presented not as a meeting to endorse but a meeting to engage in dialogue," he also said on his Facebook page.
Trump has been courting the support of evangelical black clergy members in an attempt to boost his lead in the tightening race for the Republican party nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
