*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
learn moreHistorian, Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson shares the story of how Phillips Chapel CME church came to Santa Monica, CA
learn morePastor Carl Walker shares some of his views on what and why he loves being black in America and what he would like to see more of in the African American community
learn moreApril Baskin, anti-racism Jewish activist describes “Audacious Hospitality” one of the progressive components of the Union of Reform Judaism
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