PHILADELPHIA — Amid confusion over whether he would speak at a black church this weekend, Donald J. Trump’s halting attempts to win over African-American voters took him to Philadelphia on Friday, where he spoke with a small group of business owners and community leaders and had an emotional meeting with the mother of a young woman who was killed by undocumented immigrants.

After largely avoiding black audiences during his campaign, Mr. Trump had arranged to appear at a prominent black church, Great Faith Ministries, in Detroit on Saturday.

After a New York Times report that he would not address the congregation and would give only scripted answers to questions pre-submitted by the pastor, his campaign said Thursday that Mr. Trump would speak to the crowd for five to 10 minutes.

But on Friday afternoon, the pastor, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, insisted that talk of Mr. Trump speaking was only “rumors” and that he would be allowed to offer only a short greeting to the congregation, not a pitch for why they should vote for him.