People, Locations, Episodes

Thomas Detter, Author born

*The birth of Thomas Detter is celebrated on this date in 1830.  He was a Black author and minister. Thomas Detter was born in Maryland and educated in Washington, D.C., public schools. According to his father’s will, he was to have been apprenticed as a shoemaker until his twenty-first birthday. Detter emigrated to San Francisco, […]

Eliza Ann Gardner, Religious Leader born

*Eliza Ann Gardner was born on this date in 1831. She was a Black abolitionist, religious leader, and women’s movement leader. Eliza Ann Gardner was born to James and Eliza Gardner in New York City. As a child, she moved with her family to Boston, where her father had a successful career as a shipping contractor. […]

James W. Hood, Minister, and Publisher born

James Walker Hood, was born on this date in 1831. He was an influential Black minister and policy advocate.

Bishop James W. Hood, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, was born in Chester County, PA, the son of a preacher. In 1856, he was licensed to preach in New York. He began as a preacher in Nova Scotia in 1860, served later at Bridgeport, CT., and then went to North Carolina, where his successful work exalted him to the bishopric in 1872.

Charles C. Jones Sr., Minister and Slave Owner born.

*Charles C. Jones Sr. was born on this date in 1831. He was a white-American Presbyterian clergyman, educator, and planter.  He was both a slave owner and a missionary to slaves. Charles Colcock Jones Sr. was born at Liberty Hall, his father’s plantation in Liberty County. He made a profession of faith when he was 17 for […]

Joanna P. Moore, Missionary born

*Joanna Moore was born on this date in 1832.  She was a white-American Baptist missionary. Born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Joanna Patterson Moore went to Island Number Ten in the Mississippi River in November 1863 to work with around 1,000 black women and children who had gone there seeking protection from the Union Army during the American Civil War. She […]

Cornwallis Street Baptist Church Opens

*The founding of the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church is celebrated in 1832. Formerly known as African Chapel and the African Baptist Church, it is a Baptist church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, established by black refugees.  When the chapel was completed, it was evidence that formerly enslaved people could establish their institutions in Nova Scotia. Under […]

Mathilda Beasley, Educator, and Nun born

*Mathilda Beasley was born on this date in 1832. She was a Black teacher, seamstress, and nun. Mathilda Taylor was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 14, 1832. She was baptized as a Catholic in 1869, possibly in preparation for her marriage to Abraham Beasley, a wealthy free Black restaurant owner in Savannah, who […]

Henry M. Turner, Minister, and Nationalist born

*Henry McNeal Turner was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black Nationalist, Repatriations advocate, and Minister.

From near Abbeville, South Carolina, born of free parents, McNeal was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1853 and became a Bishop in 1880. In 1863, he became the first Black army chaplain and he was the president of Morris Brown College for twelve years. Turner was a leading advocate of Black repatriations. In 1867, the American Colonization Society elected him as their president and he made several trips abroad on their behalf.

Francis Patrick Healy, Minister born

*Patrick Francis Healy was born on this date in1834. He was a Black minister and college administrator.

Isaac Lane, Bishop, and Administrator born

*Isaac Lane was born on this date in 1834.  He was a Black minister and administrator.  Born in Madison County, Tennessee, Lane grew up as a slave on the plantation of Cullen Lane. Lane married Frances Ann Boyce at age nineteen, an eighteen-year-old slave woman from neighboring Haywood County. The couple had twelve children, who […]

Rufus Perry, Minister, and Journalist born

*Rufus Perry was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black educator, journalist, and Baptist minister. Rufus L. Perry was born a slave on a plantation in Smith County, Tennessee, to Lewis Perry and Maria. Archibald W. Overton owned the family. His father was a talented mechanic, carpenter, and cabinet maker and secured […]

Anthony Burns, Preacher, and Fugitive Slave born

*Anthony Burns was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black Preacher and fugitive slave. Anthony Burns was born enslaved in Stafford County, Virginia. His mother, also enslaved by John Suttle, died shortly after his birth. His mother was a cook for the Suttle family and had 13 children, with him as her […]

Theodore Miller, Minister born.

*Theodore Miller was born on this date in 1835.  He was a Black Baptist preacher and abolitionist.  Theodore Doughty Miller was born in New York City. His parents were Henry and Sarah Miller.  His father died as an infant, and his mother died when he was about sixteen. He had an older brother who went to California […]

Benjamin T. Tanner, Bishop born

Benjamin Tucker Tanner was born on this date in 1835. He was a Black minister and bishop.

He was born in Pittsburgh. After studying at Avery Institute and Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny City, PA, he officiated at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. He organized the first school for freedmen in the United States navy yard, by permission of an Admiral Dahlgren. At the end of 18, months he returned to his own church, the African Methodist Episcopal, entering the Baltimore conference in April 1862.

Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church is Founded

*Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church was founded on this date in 1836. It is located in Princeton, New Jersey. The church was formed after the Nassau Presbyterian Church allowed former Black members to form their church after a fire had devastated the Nassau church. The church is among New Jersey’s oldest African American Presbyterian congregations. The […]