*The birth of Walter Hawkins is celebrated on this date in 1809. He was a Black bishop in the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church. From Georgetown, MD., as a child, his father worked to save enough to purchase his freedom. However, he could not afford to free his children. Young Hawkins grew up in the […]
learn more*The British Methodist Episcopal Church (BMEC) was organized on September 26, 1856. (BMEC) is a Methodist denomination based in Canada. The American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) was formed in 1816 when several Black congregations joined under Richard Allen’s leadership. By the mid-1850s, it had seven conferences in the United States. AMEC preachers began to […]
learn more*The birth of Peter Williams Jr. is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a Black Episcopal priest and abolitionist. Williams was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of Peter Williams Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran, and his wife, Mary “Molly” Durham, an indentured servant from St. Kitts. After his family moved […]
learn moreAbbé Youlou was born on July 19, 1917. He was a Black African Congolese Roman Catholic priest, nationalist leader, and politician. Abbé Fulbert Youlou, whose last name means “Grape” in the Lari language, was born in Madibou in Pool. At nine years old, a younger child in a family of three boys, he was baptized […]
learn more*Rev. William Henry Jernagin was born on this date in 1869. He was a Black Baptist pastor, American civil rights, and Pan-African activist. William Henry Jernagin was born in Mashulaville, Mississippi, to Allen Fletcher Jernagin and Julia Ruth Walker. While his parents were mostly illiterate, they obtained a 40-acre farm to grow fruits and vegetables. […]
learn more*The founding of Asbury United Methodist Church is celebrated on this date in 1836. Asbury Chapel is the oldest black United Methodist church in Washington, D.C. The church pioneered Black Methodism in Washington, D.C., and of social history through Slavery, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and the American Civil Rights movement. It is the city’s oldest Black church […]
learn more*Dennis Oglesby was born on January 21, 1960. He was a Black minister and community activist. Born in Chicago to insurance executive Dennis Michael Oglesby Sr. and community organizer Sylvia Oglesby, Dennis Jr. grew up in California with his father after his parents divorced. In 1983, he graduated from Rust College, an HBCU in Holly […]
learn more*Charles C. Jones Sr. was born on this date in 1831. He was a white-American Presbyterian clergyman, educator, and planter. He was both a slave owner and a missionary to slaves. Charles Colcock Jones Sr. was born at Liberty Hall, his father’s plantation in Liberty County. He made a profession of faith when he was 17 for […]
learn more*The birth of Saint Gelasius I is celebrated on this date in c 450. He was the Black Roman African bishop of Rome. Gelasius was born in Africa and was one of the most prolific authors of the early bishops of Rome. Over 100 Gelasian letters survive; although 49 are fragmentary, some are relatively short. Additionally, six treatises are […]
learn more*The birth of Pope Victor I is affirmed on this date in c 169. He was a Roman African bishop prelate of the early Christian Church who was Bishop of Rome in the late second Century. He was born in the Roman Province of Africa in Leptis Magna, present-day Libya. He was of Berber origin. The primary sources […]
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