People, Locations, Episodes

Noah Smith, Minister born

*Reverend Noah Smith was born on this date in 1908.  He was a Black musician, businessman, and minister.  From Marion, Indiana, after high school Smith played the drums in bands, moving in 1930 to Minneapolis, where he also ran a business painting signs on buildings and vehicles. Smith was a cartoonist briefly before getting a […]

Edler G. Hawkins, Activist, and Minister born

Edler Garnett Hawkins was born on this date in 1908. He was an African American minister and civil rights activist through the Presbyterian Church.

Alexander Memorial Baptist Church (DC) is Founded

Alexander Memorial Baptist Church began on this date in 1908 when a group of worshipers left the First Baptist Church in Georgetown, Washington D.C., because they did not like the way the church was managed.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Politician born

This date marks the 1908 birth of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. He was an African American minister, publisher, businessman, and politician.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Powell moved to New York City where his father administered the Abyssinian Baptist Church. After attending public schools, he graduated from Colgate University and received his M. A. in religious education from Columbia University.

John Burgess, Bishop born

*On this date in 1909, John Burgess was born. He was an African American bishop.

From Grand Rapids, Michigan, John Melville Burgess’ father was Theodore T. Burgess, a dining car waiter on the Pierre Marquette Railroad. His mother was Ethel I. (Beverly) Burgess. In 1930, he graduated from the University of Michigan and received his master’s degree in sociology a year later. He graduated from the Episcopal Theological School in 1934 and returned began his ministry in Grand Rapids.

The Holt Street Baptist Church Begins Services

*The Holt Street Baptist Church is celebrated on this date in 1909. This was a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. The Holt Street Baptist Church building is located at the corner of Holt Street and Bullock Street and was completed in 1913. The first reverend was I.S. Fountain. From 1939 until 1952, Charles Kenzie Steele […]

Bethel AME Church, (Reno, NV) is Founded

*Bethel AME Church in Reno, Nevada, is celebrated on this date in 1910. The church was a religious, social, and political center of Black settlers in the 1910s and later for local American Civil Rights activists during the 1960s. From its inception, Bethel AME has held to the principles of the AME church to provide self-expression and […]

Avery Alexander, Minister and Activist born

*Rev. Avery Alexander was born on this date in 1910. He was an African American minister and activist in the struggle for civil rights for Black Louisianans.

M. Moran Weston, Minister, Educator, and Activist born

*Dr. M. Moran Weston was born on this date in 1910. He was an African American minister, businessman and civil rights activist.

From Tarboro, North Carolina, he was the son and grandson of Episcopal priests and studied under his mother Catherine Perry Weston at St. Luke’s Parochial School in his hometown. His maternal grandfather the Rev. John W. Perry had founded this school in 1882. Weston attended St. Augustine’s Junior College in Raleigh North Carolina, graduating in 1928 as valedictorian. From there he enrolled at Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 1930.

Pauli Murray, Lawyer, Administrator, and Priest born

On this date in 1910, Pauli Murray was born. She was an African American lawyer, poet, and minister.

Born in Baltimore, she began her academic schooling at Hunter College (B.A., 1933), Howard University Law School (LL. B., 1944); the University of California Berkeley (LL. M., 1945), and Yale Law School, where she was the first black woman to receive a degree of doctor of juridical science in 1965.

Isaiah Newman, Activist, and Minister

Isaiah Newman was born on this date in 1911. He was an African American clergyman, civil rights leader.

Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Singer born

This date marks gospel singer Mahalia Jackson’s birthday in 1911. She was an African American gospel singer, widely regarded as the best in the history of the genre, and is the first “Queen of Gospel Music.”

Jackson was born in New Orleans and raised in the Mount Mariah Baptist Church where she sang in the choir. At a young age, Jackson knew she was going to be successful but Mahalia refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life. Halie’s Aunt Bell told her that one day she would sing in front of royalty. Halie would one day see that come true.

William Pearly Oliver, Minister, and Activist born

*William Pearly Oliver was born on this date in 1912.  He was a Black minister, administrator, and activist. Born in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, his great-great-grandfather was a Black Loyalist who came to Nova Scotia after the War of 1812. From 1880 to 1934, his grandfather, William Oliver, served as “caretaker of the Ladies Seminary and later College […]

Louise Jarrett Shropshire, Composer born

*Louise Shropshire was born on this date in 1913. She was an African American composer for her religion and the church.

Born Louise Jarrett, the granddaughter of slaves and sharecroppers, she was born in Coffee County, Alabama. In 1917, her family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio. As a young girl, Jarrett demonstrated a gift for music and composed many hymns as a member of the Baptist Church. Sometime between 1932 and 1942, after marrying Robert Shropshire, she composed a gospel hymn entitled, If My Jesus Wills.

Trevor Huddleston, Bishop born

*Trevor Huddleston was born on this date in 1913. He was a white English Anglican bishop and racial justice activist. He was best known for his anti-apartheid. Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston was the son of Ernest Huddleston and was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, and educated at Lancing College, Christ Church, Oxford, and Wells Theological College. […]