People, Locations, Episodes

Bethel A.M.E. Church (Atlanta) is Founded

*Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Atlanta was founded on this date in 1847.

Levi Jenkins Coppin, Minister born.

*Levi Jenkins Coppin was born on this date in 1848.   He was a Black minister and editor. He was the son of John Coppin and Jane Lily of Fredericktown, Maryland. His mother, a free Black woman, taught him to read and write, which was illegal then. After the American Civil War, his mother became the first […]

William J. Simmons, Educator, and Minister born

*William J. Simmons was born on this date in 1849. He was an educator, minister, and college administrator. William J. Simmons was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward and Esther Simmons. While William was young, his mother fled slavery with her three children, William and his two sisters, Emeline and Anna. They […]

St. Andrews AME Church (Sacramento), is Founded

This date in 1850 marks the founding of St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church of Sacramento, California.

William Harrison Heard, Politician and Clergyman born

*William H. Heard was born on this date in 1850.  He was a Black clergyman and politician.  William Henry (Harrison) Heard was born a slave in Elbert County, Georgia, some three miles from the small settlement of Longstreet. His father, George, was a blacksmith and later a wheelwright and carpenter of mixed ethnicity. George was the son of an […]

Francis J. Grimke, Minister, and Author born

On this date in 1850, Francis James Grimke was born. He was a Black minister and author.

He was born in Cane Acres, a rice plantation near Charleston, SC, the son of a wealthy white man and Nancy Weston, a black slave. After his father died and property rights on them were exercised by his half-brother Montague, Grimke ran away from home and joined the Confederate Army as an officer’s valet. He served there until Emancipation. After the Civil War his aunts Angela and Sarah Moore Grimke acknowledged their kinship and helped in his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Joseph Endom Jones, Writer, and Professor born

*Joseph E. Jones was born on this date in 1850.  He was a Black Baptist minister, writer, and professor.   Joseph Endom Jones was born a slave in Lynchburg, Virginia. At the age of six, he started to work at a tobacco factory. Jones’s mother believed that the end of slavery was near and that her boy should learn to read and […]

Albery Whitman, Poet, and Orator born

*Albery Whitman was born on this date in 1851.  He was a Black poet, minister, and orator.   Albery Allison Whitman was born into slavery at a farm near Munfordville, Kentucky. After years as a manual laborer, working at a plow shop, on railroad construction, and as a teacher, Whitman attended Wilberforce University in 1870. […]

Charles A. Tindley, Minister born

Charles Albert Tindley was born on this date in 1851. He was a Black Methodist Episcopal minister and lyricist.

Lucy Farrow, Pastor born

*Lucy Farrow’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1851. She was a Black Holiness pastor who was instrumental in the early foundations of Pentecostalism.   Lucy F. Farrow was born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia.   She was the niece of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In 1905, she worked for Charles Fox Parham during his […]

Union Baptist Church (Baltimore) Founded

*Union Baptist Church (Baltimore) was founded on this date in 1852. This historic Baptist church is at 1219 Druid Hill Avenue in central Baltimore, Maryland. In 1866, the Lewis Street congregation merged with Saratoga Street African Baptist Church members, forming Union Baptist Church. The granite church was designed by architect William J. Beardsley and built-in […]

The First A.M.E. Zion Church (San Francisco) is Founded

*On this date, in 1852, The First African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of San Francisco was founded. Started by the Reverend John Jamison Moore, he pastored the church and participated extensively in civic affairs. The First Church home was on Stockton Street (between Broadway and Pacific). The church remained at this location for six years. […]

The Third Baptist Church of San Francisco is Founded

*On this date in 1852, we celebrate the founding of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.   This black church was founded in the home of William and Eliza Davis on Kearny Street.  It was called the First Colored Baptist Church of San Francisco.  With the Davis, there were seven other blacks and a band […]

Olive Chapel A.M.E. Church is Founded

*Olive Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church is celebrated on this date in 1853. The Reverend Jordan Winston Early founded the congregation. Services began in a private home. Also known as Olive Chapel AME Church, it is a historic church at 309 S. Harrison Avenue in Kirkwood, Missouri. It is the oldest Protestant church in Kirkwood. […]

Octavia Rogers Albert, Writer, and Teacher born

The birth of Octavia V. Rogers Albert in 1853 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black teacher and writer.