George Freeman Bragg Jr.
*George Freeman Bragg, Jr. was born on this date in 1863. He was a Black minister and activist.
From Warrenton, North Carolina, when Bragg was two years old, his family moved to Petersburg, Virginia. Bragg grew up in St. Stephen's Church, and he attended its parochial school until 1870 when he was expelled due to claims that he was not sufficiently humble. In 1885, he re-entered the school. Bragg founded The Lancet, a weekly newspaper for Blacks, in 1882. When Bragg returned to the seminary in 1885, The Lancet became the Afro-American Churchman (and finally the Church Advocate).
In 1887, Bragg was ordained as a deacon, and in 1888 he received his ordination as an Episcopal priest in Norfolk, Virginia. As an activist, he worked to advance education for Blacks. Bragg was a critic of racism in the church; he was opposed to the exclusion of Blacks in the missionary organization of the church. George Freeman Bragg, Jr. died in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 12, 1940.
