*Cameron Alleyne was born on this date in 1880. He was a Caribbean-American bishop. Cameron Chesterfield Alleyne was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, to Robert Henry Alleyne and Amelia Anna Alleyne. He attended Naparima College in Trinidad between 1899 and 1903 before traveling to the United States for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Tuskegee Institute in […]
learn more*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. […]
learn more*Jordan Winston Early was born on this date in 1814. He was a Black Methodist preacher. Jordan Early was born into slavery in Franklin County, Virginia. After his mother’s death, when Early was three, he and his siblings were cared for by a maternal aunt, an uncle who taught him astronomy, and an older woman […]
learn more*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, […]
learn more*Marie Laveau was born on this date in 1801. She was a Black Voodoo practitioner, herbalist, and midwife. Marie Catherine Laveau was born a Creole-free woman of color in New Orleans, Louisiana. Spanish colonial officials still administered Louisiana at the time of her birth. Her mother, Marguerite D’Arcantel, was a free woman of color of African, European, […]
learn more*The First Calvary Baptist Church of Norfolk is celebrated on this date in 1915. This is a historic black Baptist church located in Norfolk, Virginia. It is a four-story, 11-bay, brick church building in the Second Renaissance Revival style. The building features decorative terra cotta and a stained-glass dome. It has a two-tier, engaged entrance portico with […]
learn more*Joseph Ritter was born on this date in 1892. He was a white-American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church and a racial justice activist. Born in New Albany, Indiana, Elmer Joseph Ritter was the fourth of Nicholas and Bertha (née Luette) Ritter’s six children. His father owned and operated the Ritter Bakery (where the family […]
learn more*Alfred Street Baptist Church is celebrated on this date in 1803. This Baptist church in Alexandria, Virginia, is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA. Among the main Black Churches in America, its first colored member, Susan Black, a black slave, was baptized in May 1803, and soon other coloreds were invited to join this integrated group. […]
learn more*On this date in 1903, St. Stephen Baptist Church held its first service. This church began with a courageous young preacher, Reverend James Wesley Hurse. Preaching from a tent and a few dedicated followers, they worked, prayed, and sacrificed on a street corner in “Bellevidere Hollow.” As a prominent leader, he became the second President of […]
learn more*Gayle Elizabeth Harris was born on this date in 1951. She is a Black priest and bishop. Harris was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and studied at the Lewis & Clark College and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Harris became a deacon in February 1981 and a priest in June 1982. She was assistant […]
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