People, Locations, Episodes

The First Baptist Church of Georgetown is Founded

The First Baptist Church of Georgetown was founded on this date in 1862. It is one of the oldest Black Baptist churches in the Washington, D. C. area.

Preacher Collins Williams donated land at 29th and O streets, NW, to build a small church known as “The Ark.” Williams and his wife Betsey had led religious meetings in Georgetown in private residences.

John E. Ford, Minister born

*John E. Ford was born on this date in 1862. He was a Black minister and businessman.

From Owensboro, KY John Elijah Ford was the eldest of fifteen children of Isom and Anne Helm Ford. Nine of his siblings died at birth or childhood diseases and he was the only one born in Kentucky. His family moved to Chicago when he was a child where he grew up near 33rd and Dearborn Street. His brothers and sister were, Gerogie, Dotie, Lola, Vertel (Bud) and Milton. Ford graduated from high school as the only black in his class and was proficent in Latin with good grades.

A. D. Williams, Minister born

*On this date, in 1863, A. D. Williams was born. He was a Black minister and civil rights activist.  From Greene County, Georgia, Adam Daniel Williams was the son of a slave preacher, Willis, and his wife, Lucretia Williams. He celebrated his birthday the day after the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation. He spent […]

George Freeman Bragg Jr., Minister born

*George Freeman Bragg, Jr. was born on this date in 1863. He was an African American minister and activist.

Lena Mason, Minister, and Poet born

Lena Mason, a Black minister and poet, was born on this date in 1864.

She was born in Quincy, Illinois of parents, Reida and Vaughn, who were stanch Christians. Young Mason became a Christian at a very early age, attending the Douglass High School of Hannibal, MO. She also attended Professor Knott’s School in Chicago. She married George Mason in 1883, had six children with only one daughter surviving to adulthood. Mason entered the ministry at the age of 23. During her first three years of ministry she preached to whites exclusively.

Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Clergyman born

Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., was born on this date in 1865. He was an African American clergyman and author.

Saint Philip A.M.E. Church in Georgia Opens

Saint Philip A.M.E. Church was established on this date in 1865, the oldest A.M.E. Church in the state of Georgia.

It was Organized by the Reverend A. L. Stanford in Savannah, Georgia, at the close of the Civil War. Later that year the Sunday school began. In September 1896, a storm demolished the building, and the church was a mass of ruins. During its interim, the Odd Fellow’s Hall was secured for worship. Saint Philip officers and members of Trinity Methodist Church moved to purchase property on West Broad and Charles Streets.

Zion Baptist Church (Denver) is Founded

*Zion Baptist Church was founded on this date in1865. It is one of the oldest African American churches west of the Mississippi.

Zion Baptist church was founded by a small group of people that came from other territories and towns to Colorado with limited resources, filled with determination. Rev. William Norrid was Zion’s first Pastor. In 1867 Zion purchased 2 lots located at 20th and Holladay (now Arapahoe) Streets and built their first house of worship.

Samuel Bacote, Minister born

*This date in 1866 is celebrated as the birth date of Rev. Samuel W. Bacote, a Black minister.  The son of former slaves, Bacote was born in Society Hill, South Carolina. His mother died when he was three months old, leaving him to be raised by his father and grandmother.  His father was literate and […]

James Westley Hurse, Minister born

*James Wesley Hurse was born on this date in 1866.  He was a Black minister. Born in Collierville, Tennessee, he spent his early years on a farm near Mason, Tennessee. As a teenager, he left home and worked at various odd jobs in Memphis before moving to Kansas City at 21. He enrolled at the […]

Nora A. Gordon, Teacher, and Missonary born

Nora Antonia Gordon was born on this date in 1866. She was an African American teacher and missionary.

She was born in Columbus, GA, and graduated from Spelman Seminary (now Spelman College) in 1888. Antonia attended a missionary school in London before arriving at the Palabala mission in the Congo a year later. Working with Lulu Fleming, she taught classes in the day school and the Sunday school. In 1891, she was transferred to Lukunga mission where she was in charge of the afternoon school and the printing office.

Pilgrim Baptist Church (St. Paul, MN) is Founded

On this date in 1866, Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN, was formally organized with its first service.

The First Congregational Church (Atlanta) is Founded

*On this date in 1867, the First Congregational Church of Atlanta held its first service. It came into existence as a “gathered church.”  At first, The American Missionary Association established the Storrs School in Atlanta. The school served as a center for social services, education, and worship for newly freed Blacks. Worshipers at the school’s […]

Abraham Lincoln DeMond, Minister and Activist born.

*Abraham Lincoln DeMond was born on this date in 1867. He was a Black minister and civil rights advocate in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Seneca, New York, DeMond was the son of Quam and Phebe (Darrow) DeMond. He was the first black graduate of the State Normal School at Cortland, […]

The Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church (Richmond, VA) is Founded

*The Sixth Mount Zion Baptist was founded on this date in 1867. John Jasper organized Sixth Mount Zion in Richmond, Virginia, he would go on to become one of the nations most well-known post Civil War Black ministers.