The Sage of Tawawa: Reverdy Cassius Ransom, 1861-1959

Abstract

have lived through three generations. I have heard the rebel yell, the mourns and groans of slavery and the death rattle in the throat of the expiring monster as he was forever destroyed. When Reverdy Cassius Ransom expressed this, he was reflecting back on almost ninety years of a life spent as a pastor, editor, politician, writer, civil rights leader, and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In The Sage of Tawawa, Annetta L. Gomez-Jefferson offers Ransom as a symbol of an era and a larger movement and recalls him to be a man of deep faith and conviction. Educated at Wilberforce University in Ohio (after losing his scholarship from Oberlin College for protesting the segregation of the campus dining halls), Reverdy Cassius Ransom worked with and for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His duties saw him run for Congress, be elected bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, serve as editor of the A.M.E. Church Review, and serve as church historiographer. In July 1941, Ransom received a letter from President Roosevelt appointing him to the Volunteer Participation Committee in the Office of Civilian Defense. This examination of Ransom's lifelong dedication to his work in the A.M.E. church and in civil rights will prove valuable to students of African American social history.