*Pope Leo XIV was born on this date in 1955. He is a Creole head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was born Robert Francis Prevost at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Known as “Bob” or “Rob” in childhood and to friends as an adult, Prevost was raised in Dolton, […]
learn more*Alfred King was born on this date in 1930. He was a Black Baptist minister and civil rights activist. Alfred Daniel King was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He was the youngest of their three children (the other two being Willie Christine […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*Samuel Crowther’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1809. He was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first Black African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Samuel Crowther was born in Nigeria, the grandson of King Abiodun, through his mother, Afala; Ajayi was around 12 years old when he and his family were captured by […]
learn more*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 […]
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