*On this date in 1770, Morris Brown was born. He was a Black minister and abolitionist. Born to parents who were free people of color in Charleston, South Carolina, Brown received no formal education and he was taught skills at home. He and his family were successful and considered part of the city’s free Black elite. Its large Black population was […]
learn more*The birth of Samuel Cornish is celebrated on this date in 1795. He was a Black Presbyterian minister, abolitionist, publisher, and journalist. Samuel Eli Cornish was born in Sussex County, Delaware, to free parents of mixed race. As a young man, in 1815 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which had a large community of free Blacks. After moving to New York City in 1821, Cornish organized […]
learn more*The founding of the Bethel Church is celebrated on this date in 1838. Originally Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, they were founded in Jacksonville, Florida and is the city’s oldest Baptist congregation. Established under co-pastors James McDonald and Ryan Frier, at its inception it had only six charter members, four whites and two Blacks, the latter of whom were held as slaves […]
learn more*Rev. Henry W. Botts Sr. was born on this date in 1875. He was an African American minister and community activist. Henry Botts was born in Meadville, MO, one of six children of Thomas and Matilda Botts who were enslaved on a plantation in Meadville MO. The children’s names were Thomas, Virginia, Margaret, William, Henry, and […]
learn more*The first service at the 16th Street Baptist Church was held on this date in 1873. The church was organized as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama. It was the first Black church to organize in Birmingham, which was founded just two years before. The first meetings were held in a small building at […]
learn more*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’ mother believed that the end of slavery was near and that her boy should learn to read and […]
learn more*Arnold Josiah Ford was born on this date in 1877. He was an African American poet, musician, composer and the first black rabbi in America. Ford was born in Barbados to Edward Thomas Ford and Elizabeth Augustine Ford. He asserted that his father’s ancestry could be traced to the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria and his mothers to the Mendi tribe of Sierra Leone. According to […]
learn moreJoseph Flores, Apache educator (retired) professor and counselor offers some historic points of intersectionality between African Americans and Native Americans
learn moreMinister, Author and Activist Rev. Mary Young shares her perspective on why Islam and Christianity in African America
learn moreHistorian and author, Clementine Pigford shares insight on her work with Zion Baptist church and the relationship African America has with religion in general
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