African Methodist Episcopal Church Research Articles

Abstract A050: Faith-based messaging and materials for colorectal cancer screening in the African Methodist Episcopal church

Abstract Introduction: Religion plays a significant role in Black and African American communities, yet little is known about ways to incorporate faith into colorectal cancer (CRC) screening messages and how to distribute such messages to the congregation and community. Brief description of pertinent experimental procedures: We collaborated with members of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Atlanta, Georgia to create culturally appropriate and locally relevant faith-based CRC screening messages and materials. We used a modified boot camp translation (BCT) approach to obtain input from AME congregants to 1) develop faith-based CRC screening messages that resonate with the AME community and 2) identify the role of the church in bringing CRC information to the AME community. Messages were developed using market-tested CRC screening messaging from the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT) as a starting point. Eligible participants were members from six churches within the AME Atlanta East District, ages 45 to 75 years, and willing to participate in one 5-hour in-person meeting and two follow-up video-conferencing calls. The in-person session consisted of expert presentations by a national leader on CRC and screening, a local leader well-versed in barriers to screening and community resources, and a prominent figure within the church clergy. Interactive small group sessions were also part of the in-person meeting and focused on developing CRC screening messages and identifying dissemination channels. Follow-up virtual sessions (one-hour each) were conducted to solicit feedback from participants on the materials created (e.g., fact sheets, pamphlets, message cards). Summary of new, unpublished data: A total of twenty-seven adults participated in the in-person session (17 women and 10 men) and 12-13 of these individuals attended the virtual follow-up sessions. Based on input obtained, the research team developed CRC screening messages that 1) incorporated faith-based concepts into health messaging, 2) sought to raise CRC awareness and knowledge through personal connections, or 3) empowered individuals to take control of their colorectal health through the strength of their community. Messages included: “Faith over fear! Get screened for colorectal cancer today;” “Honor God by taking care of your body.” “Share your cancer story. It can save lives.” “You are not alone. We are in this together.” Participants identified the following preferred dissemination methods/channels: print materials (e.g., flyers, pamphlets, message cards) and digital materials (e.g., videos) shown during Sunday service. Additional channels included cancer awareness events and social media platforms. Conclusion: Churches serve as key partners in delivering health information as they are among the most trusted institutions within the Black and African American community. Using BCT, we incorporated participant feedback to create faith-based CRC screening messages and identified channels for sharing information within the AME church community. Citation Format: Jamie Thompson, Jennifer Rivelli, Priyanka Gautom, Cheryl Johnson, Megan Burns, Dani Schenk, Caleb Levell, Nikki Hayes, Gloria Coronado. Faith-based messaging and materials for colorectal cancer screening in the African Methodist Episcopal church [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A050.

Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916

Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916

Educating Black Girls Enduring Microaggressions in an Oreo World

The purpose of this article is to explore suburban Black Christian girls’ experiences of microaggressions in the public high school context. Through an ethnographic study, personal narratives were collected from six suburban Black Christian girls who all attended the same African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church where I served as the youth minister. These narratives offer insight into ways microaggression encounters in suburban schools can impact the personal identity, racial identity, and spiritual formation of Black adolescent girls. The Black sanctuary is the context where the girls in the study felt most accepted, represented, and safe. This implies re-imagining religious education practices with Black girls is important if pastors want to cultivate formative spaces that help Black youth thrive in an Oreo World.

Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916 by Christina Dickerson-Cousin (review)

Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916 by Christina Dickerson-Cousin (review)

Developing Faith-Based Messaging and Materials for Colorectal Cancer Screening: Application of Boot Camp Translation Within the African Methodist Episcopal Church

Purpose of the study: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd leading cause of cancer-related death in Black and African American people in the United States. We created culturally appropriate and locally relevant faith-based CRC screening messages and materials for African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church communities in Atlanta, Georgia. Methods: We used boot camp translation (BCT), a validated community based participatory strategy, to elicit input from AME congregants to 1) develop faith-based CRC screening messages that resonate with the AME community and 2) identify the role of the church in bringing CRC information to the AME community. Eligible participants were members of the AME Atlanta East District churches, ages 45 to 75 years, and willing to participate in one 5-hour in-person meeting and two follow-up video-conferencing calls. The in-person session, conducted in the church sanctuary and fellowship hall, consisted of expert presentations by a national leader on colorectal cancer and screening, a local leader well-versed in barriers to screening and community resources, and a prominent figure within the church clergy. Additionally, we held interactive small group sessions to create messages and identify dissemination methods. Results: A total of 27 adults participated in the in-person session (17 women and 10 men). Participants preferred CRC screening messages that incorporated faith-based concepts including “honoring God by taking care of one's body”_ and “choosing faith over fear of screening.”_ Other key themes focused on increasing awareness and knowledge of CRC screening, taking control of one's own health, and sharing personal stories with one's community to reduce stigma and inspire action. Favored dissemination channels within the church were Sunday service, print (e.g., flyers, pamphlets, message cards) distributed at church, and digital materials (e.g., videos) shown during service. Desired community channels included cancer awareness events and social media platforms. Conclusions: Churches serve as key partners in delivering health information as they are among the most trusted institutions within the Black and African American community. Using BCT, we successfully incorporated participant feedback to create faith-based CRC screening messages and identified appropriate channels for sharing information within the AME community.

:Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsChristina Dickerson-Cousin, Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2021. Pp. 252. $110.00 (cloth); $26.00 (paper).Benjamin BakerBenjamin BakerUniversity of Maryland (USA) Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of African American History Volume 108, Number 2Spring 2023 A journal of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/724068 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South by Jack Noe

Reviewed by: Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South by Jack Noe Krista Kinslow (bio) Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South. Jack Noe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-8071-7558-3. 244 pp., cloth, $45.00. In Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South, Jack Noe adds to the small but growing body of literature on the 1876 World’s Fair. Just in the last few years, scholars (especially art historians) have broken new ground in exploring how the visual culture of the first world’s fair in the United States reflected the conflicted world of the post–Civil War era. Noe expands on this theme by looking at how Reconstruction politics were integral to understanding the Centennial Exhibition, as well as Fourth of July celebrations in the years after the war. He correctly observes that “the commemorative activity of the Reconstruction era was inseparably intertwined with its politics, and ostensibly unifying and celebratory commemorations of the nation’s founding served as arenas for reflecting the deep sectional, partisan, and racial divisions of an unreconciled nation” (13). While he claims that “this book zeroes in on this particular moment” of the 1876 Fair, the work misses opportunities to offer more groundbreaking interpretations (13). This volume is divided into six chapters, with the first two and the last looking at Fourth of July celebrations in the South. The early parts of the book examine how white Southerners rejected the Fourth of July during and after the Civil War, as such celebrations “were symbolic of nationalism and an identity that white southerners had rejected” (55). Meanwhile, African Americans embraced the holiday, as a way to “articulate their claim to the rights of citizenship” (48). [End Page 119] However, as Redemption became reality by 1876, white Southerners began to lose some of their ”antipathy” to Independence Day celebrations, although such festivities continued to be “politically charged” (171–72). The middle of the book explores various facets of the Centennial Exhibition, with a focus on how Southerners, white and Black, reacted to the event. White Southerners often discussed the fair with derision, but African Americans, in contrast, looked at the exhibition as a place to prove their belonging to the nation. This is where Noe misses significant opportunities, as the book really does not present much evidence of African Americans discussing the fair. His best example, on the planned monument to Richard Allen, was an initiative of the African Methodist Episcopal Church headquartered in Philadelphia. Noe is much stronger in showing the various ways white Southerners reacted to the fair, with some linking it to Radical Reconstruction and others seeing it as an opportunity to advance the economic interests of the region, the state, or the local area in which they lived. This is something he terms the “New Departure approach” to the Centennial (75). The controversies over who would represent each Southern state on the Centennial Planning Committee is well covered here, especially the details of the story in Texas. However, it appears the author has mistaken the Louisiana commissioner, John C. Lynch, with Mississippi’s Black representative, John R. Lynch, an understandable mistake, given that the newspaper source he cites made the same critical error (137). In suggesting that the Centennial was “designed to heal the wounds of the Civil War,” Noe perhaps takes its planners too much at their word, given that he also points out that works of art depicting the war abounded, in particular the controversial pro-Union painting Battle of Gettysburg (131). It is in this section that the book would have greatly benefited from some photographs or illustrations, as it is difficult for a reader to understand the analysis without seeing the visual image. The book’s organization breaks down as well. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that the Centennial Exhibition included local, state, and national components and that the book also tries to cover decades of Independence Day celebrations in the entire South, meaning that there is too much to analyze in one volume. It seems it would have been better to focus on one...

Introduction and Response to Special Issue

Introduction and Response to Special Issue

Building a Diasporic Family: The Women’s Parent Mite Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1874–1920

ABSTRACT This article argues that the missionary language of the Women’s Parent Mite Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was cast in familial and kinship nomenclature that eschewed the evil of racial hierarchy. Although routine missionary vernacular about heathen Africa and its need for Christianization and civilization appeared in the rhetoric of AME women, they more deeply expressed a diasporic consciousness that obligated Black people on both sides of the Atlantic to resist Euro-American hegemony. The capacious embrace of the WPMMS for Black women—whether in the United States, the Caribbean, or Africa—actualized their vision for maternal and sisterly interaction in contrast to the racial condescension prevalent among white women in their respective American and European missionary groups.

Abstract A102: Developing faith-based messaging and materials for colorectal cancer screening: Application of boot camp translation within the African Methodist Episcopal Church

Abstract Introductory sentences: We use boot camp translation (BCT), a validated community based participatory strategy, to elicit input from African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregants, leadership, and healthcare systems in Atlanta, Georgia to create culturally appropriate and locally relevant colorectal cancer (CRC) faith-based screening messages and materials for AME church communities. Brief description of pertinent experimental procedures: In the United States, CRC is the third-leading cause of cancer death and disproportionately impacts African Americans, highlighting the need for timely screening within this community. African American adults have higher annual rates of new CRC cases and are diagnosed with CRC at younger ages when compared to White adults. Regular CRC screening is pertinent to increasing the chance of early diagnosis and survival, however, African Americans are less likely to get screened for CRC than Whites. Church-based educational programs have been successful in promoting cancer screening, including CRC screening, in various racial and ethnic groups. Churches can serve as key partners in delivering health information as they are among the most trusted institutions within the African American community. As part of a collaboration among the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AME churches and Atlanta-based healthcare systems, we will apply BCT to develop and disseminate messaging to promote CRC screening within the AME community. The BCT session aims are twofold: 1) to identify the role of the church in bringing CRC information to the AME community and 2) to define the content and format of effective faith-based CRC messages tailored for the AME community. Summary of new, unpublished data: The BCT workshops will occur in July 2022.Statement of conclusions: We anticipate preliminary findings and materials to be ready by September 2022. Citation Format: Priyanka Gautom, Jamie H. Thompson, Cheryl A. Johnson, Jennifer S. Rivelli, Gloria D. Coronado. Developing faith-based messaging and materials for colorectal cancer screening: Application of boot camp translation within the African Methodist Episcopal Church [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A102.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF AME UNIVERSITY TO THE ECONOMY OF ITS ENVIRONMENT

The African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) lies on Camp Johnson Road in Monrovia, Liberia. Liberia’s second-largest institution has 5,000 students. The African Methodist Episcopal Church founded the school in 1995 and the Liberian Legislature sanctioned it in 1996. Since then, the university has thrived in the Liberian economy, expanding admissions every other semester and attracting acquisitions and improving its surroundings. Governments and university administrators fail to make informed higher education investment decisions and effectively communicate the value of institutions to their people because schools’ economic influence is rarely recorded. The economic impact of AME university was studied because policymakers, university administrators, and other stakeholders need a detailed and structured study of how colleges contribute to economic growth and development. This study could consider other ways AME University supports its local economy, such as direct spending on goods and services and human development. A Google Forms survey questionnaire was prepared to obtain data from people or groups about AME University’s economic impact on Camp Johnson Road and its surroundings. The questionnaire questions about the respondent’s gender, status, income, education, spending habits, and camp Johnson community’s businesses and university. The poll also asks on the university’s economic benefits, such as increased activity. The responses were used to identify trends and relationships between AME University and economic outcomes on Camp Johnson Road and neighboring areas. The analysis indicated that 85.6% of AMEU residents are familiar with the study region, 18.8% between 10 and 5 years ago, 17.7% over 10 years ago, and 10.4% before the institution. The report indicated that 85.6% of AMEU residents believe the institution has increased commercial activity and 13.5% believe it has had little influence. According to 93.1%, AME University recruited environmental businesses and boosted economic activity. The study found that African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) impacts its surroundings. Most Non-AMEU residents—62 business owners and 37 residents—have lived there 10–5 years. Most claim AME University boosted Camp Johnson Road’s business. 78.20% of non-AMEU residents think the institution boosted local economic activity by attracting new customers. 39.80% said the area’s major business is used and new American goods. Most business owners chose Camp Johnson Road for traffic and AME University. The figure reveals AMEU members spend $10, $10–20, and $50–100. If the institution exits Camp Johnson Road, 45.5% agree somewhat and 37.6% strongly that commercial activities will suffer. 26.7% of firms are disadvantaged by the institution’s pause, 52.5% are unaffected, and 21.8% are moderately affected. AMEU has impacted its local economy and Montserrado. Based on this knowledge, educational institutions should partner with local businesses and groups. Educational institutions must show community benefit to succeed. Policymakers, university administrators, and other stakeholders must assess institutions’ economic significance to guide higher education spending and identify areas where universities may have a bigger impact. A unified conceptual framework that accounts for universities’ varied economic contributions is needed to monitor and identify their impacts. Higher education spending, employment, and other economic metrics must be accurate. Understanding the economic impact of institutions such as AME University can aid in communicating their worth to the community and informing sustainable development policies. Similar studies for other colleges or institutions might be conducted to assess their economic consequences and gain a more comprehensive knowledge of higher education’s function in local economies or Liberia as a whole. This could influence future educational policy and investment decisions.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF AME UNIVERSITY TO THE ECONOMY OF ITS ENVIRONMENT

The African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) lies on Camp Johnson Road in Monrovia, Liberia. Liberia’s second-largest institution has 5,000 students. The African Methodist Episcopal Church founded the school in 1995 and the Liberian Legislature sanctioned it in 1996. Since then, the university has thrived in the Liberian economy, expanding admissions every other semester and attracting acquisitions and improving its surroundings. Governments and university administrators fail to make informed higher education investment decisions and effectively communicate the value of institutions to their people because schools’ economic influence is rarely recorded. The economic impact of AME university was studied because policymakers, university administrators, and other stakeholders need a detailed and structured study of how colleges contribute to economic growth and development. This study could consider other ways AME University supports its local economy, such as direct spending on goods and services and human development. A Google Forms survey questionnaire was prepared to obtain data from people or groups about AME University’s economic impact on Camp Johnson Road and its surroundings. The questionnaire questions about the respondent’s gender, status, income, education, spending habits, and camp Johnson community’s businesses and university. The poll also asks on the university’s economic benefits, such as increased activity. The responses were used to identify trends and relationships between AME University and economic outcomes on Camp Johnson Road and neighboring areas. The analysis indicated that 85.6% of AMEU residents are familiar with the study region, 18.8% between 10 and 5 years ago, 17.7% over 10 years ago, and 10.4% before the institution. The report indicated that 85.6% of AMEU residents believe the institution has increased commercial activity and 13.5% believe it has had little influence. According to 93.1%, AME University recruited environmental businesses and boosted economic activity. The study found that African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) impacts its surroundings. Most Non-AMEU residents—62 business owners and 37 residents—have lived there 10–5 years. Most claim AME University boosted Camp Johnson Road’s business. 78.20% of non-AMEU residents think the institution boosted local economic activity by attracting new customers. 39.80% said the area’s major business is used and new American goods. Most business owners chose Camp Johnson Road for traffic and AME University. The figure reveals AMEU members spend $10, $10–20, and $50–100. If the institution exits Camp Johnson Road, 45.5% agree somewhat and 37.6% strongly that commercial activities will suffer. 26.7% of firms are disadvantaged by the institution’s pause, 52.5% are unaffected, and 21.8% are moderately affected. AMEU has impacted its local economy and Montserrado. Based on this knowledge, educational institutions should partner with local businesses and groups. Educational institutions must show community benefit to succeed. Policymakers, university administrators, and other stakeholders must assess institutions’ economic significance to guide higher education spending and identify areas where universities may have a bigger impact. A unified conceptual framework that accounts for universities’ varied economic contributions is needed to monitor and identify their impacts. Higher education spending, employment, and other economic metrics must be accurate. Understanding the economic impact of institutions such as AME University can aid in communicating their worth to the community and informing sustainable development policies. Similar studies for other colleges or institutions might be conducted to assess their economic consequences and gain a more comprehensive knowledge of higher education’s function in local economies or Liberia as a whole. This could influence future educational policy and investment decisions.

Father James Page: An Enslaved Preacher's Climb to Freedom by Larry Eugene Rivers

Reviewed by: Father James Page: An Enslaved Preacher's Climb to Freedom by Larry Eugene Rivers Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh Father James Page: An Enslaved Preacher's Climb to Freedom. By Larry Eugene Rivers. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Pp. xvi, 311. $39.95, ISBN 978-1-4214-4030-9.) Despite the prominence of Afro-Protestantism in the historiography of Black religion in the United States, few studies devote more than a chapter to the lives of individual enslaved and freed Christians, on account of the scarce and disparate nature of sources by and about them. In Father James Page: An Enslaved Preacher's Climb to Freedom, Larry Eugene Rivers uses James Page's rare autobiographical account and a range of supporting sources to offer a full-length biography of the preacher, starting with his enslavement and extending through the postemancipation era. Described by Rivers as "a committed father and husband, a teacher, a sexist, a segregationist, a moralist, a pluralist, a pragmatist, an overseer/manager, and a conservative political leader," Page led a life that typified the lives of other late-nineteenth-century enslaved and freedpeople in its precariousness, yet it evinced uncommon privilege on account of his literacy and relationship with slaveholders (p. 232). Through his narration of Page's extraordinary life, Rivers offers an in-depth look into how slavery's rigors shaped Christianity among the enslaved and at the proliferation of Afro-Protestantism in the wake of emancipation. Following the arc of Page's autobiography, Rivers traces the preacher's life in slavery from his birth in Richmond, Virginia, in 1808 through the Civil War—in the process revealing as much about the lives of bondpeople held by slaveholder John Parkhill as about Page's emergence as a spiritual leader. Throughout the biography, Rivers strives to paint a sensitive yet accurate portrait of Page as a young man striving to carve out a space in the world amid the uncertainties and negotiations endemic to life in slavery. Despite Page's atypical privileges, many familiar historical experiences and events are threaded throughout the narrative. Born to an enslaved woman and a free man, Page apparently remembered little of his parents, despite spending much of his early years with his mother, Susie Page, and younger brother, Tom. Rivers depicts Page's life as being heavily shaped by his slaveholder John Parkhill, whose conversion to Christianity, marriages, investment failures, economic growth, and death determined Page's literacy, separation from his mother and brother, movement from Virginia to Florida, elevation to the role of overseer, and ordination. Attending to Page's words, while filling in what might have been left unsaid, Rivers narrates Page's growth as a Baptist preacher in slavery and as a reluctant political leader afterward. Page's role as overseer on Parkhill's Florida plantation coincided with his ascension as a spiritual leader, and Rivers appropriately questions whether fear, as opposed to devotion, compelled Page's flock. According to Rivers, Page developed a Trinitarian, spiritually egalitarian, otherworldly theological stance that reflected his careful negotiation of his position within enslaved and slaveholding, Black and white societies. Rivers unabashedly brands the preacher a conservative both in terms of his adherence to patriarchal gender norms and in his continued economic and political partnerships with former slaveholders after freedom. Juxtaposing [End Page 552] Page with his more progressive African Methodist Episcopal Church counterparts, Rivers presents the varied ways Black Protestant leaders responded to freedom in the South and offers insight into how denominational affiliations aligned with sociopolitical stances. Page's extraordinary sociopolitical career as the founder of Bethel Baptist Sunday School, a registrar, and a justice of the peace in Leon County, Florida, cautions against one-dimensional portraits of historical figures and the all-encompassing projections of terms like conservative and progressive. In the end, Page was a complex individual whose measured political activities were a part of a larger landscape of Black people striving toward economic and political freedom, even as his relationships with former slaveholders enabled him to plant Baptist churches throughout the South. Besides adding to a corpus of knowledge regarding Afro-Protestantism, Rivers models the methodological creativity necessary for excavating details about the lives of people...

Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916 by Christina Dickerson-Cousin

Black Indians and Freedmen: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Indigenous Americans, 1816–1916 by Christina Dickerson-Cousin

Andre E. Johnson, No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner

<i>Andre E. Johnson</i>, No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner

Naomi Willie Pollard Dobson: A Pioneering Black Librarian

ABSTRACT Naomi Willie Pollard Dobson (1883–1971) was an educator, librarian, clubwoman, civic leader, and the first Black woman to graduate from Northwestern University in 1905. Despite her achievements, Dobson is not represented in the literature in Black librarianship history, African American history, or women’s history. This article takes a closer look at an early twentieth-century life well lived. A chance reading of the 1915 Wilberforce University catalog revealed her as the head librarian at Wilberforce, an Ohio historically Black college founded in 1856 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. This article documents the process of uncovering an unknown and unsung figure in African American woman’s biography and library history. The text makes the case for inclusion of an under-researched woman who contributed to the intellectual and liberatory conscious of African Americans. To situate the subject in time and space the article recounts her familial influences through genealogy, explores her movements through the society and women’s columns, and outlines her professional work through institutional reports. Recounting Dobson’s life involved embracing the relational through the significance of a remarkable family, communities centered on self-determination, and progressive racial uplift.

The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen. To Which is Annexed the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Containing a Narrative of the Yellow Fever in the Year of our Lord 1793: With an Address to the People of Colour in the United States by Richard

The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen. To Which is Annexed the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Containing a Narrative of the Yellow Fever in the Year of our Lord 1793: With an Address to the People of Colour in the United States by Richard

Review: Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, by Martha S. Jones

Review: <i>Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All</i>, by Martha S. Jones

The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A History

On 17 June 2015 a white supremacist invaded Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and opened fire on a Bible study group. Nine members were killed, including the pastor, Clementa Pinckney. Pinckney had been a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and of the State Senate, as well as an AME minister, and the eulogy at his funeral was given by President Barack Obama. The story of the Charleston atrocity and its aftermath says much about the history of the AME, the largest of the black Methodist denominations, capturing its courageous and risky witness against injustice, its role in giving institutional expression to black aspirations, and its success in claiming a recognized place in the polity and public life of the United States. These themes, and more besides, are explored in Dennis Dickerson's magisterial history of the denomination.Professor Dickerson is well qualified to write the history of the AME Church. As the substantial bibliography to the present volume shows, he has been publishing on related subjects for more than two decades, and he has amassed an extensive knowledge of the primary and secondary sources. Here he presents a chronological account, beginning with the development of African Methodism in North America and the Caribbean, and describing the origins of the AME in the work of Richard Allen (1760–1831). Allen's departure from St George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1787 rooted the AME in an Exodus narrative that continued to be significant as a new denomination gradually took shape. Formally constituted in 1816, with Allen as its first bishop, the AME grew steadily through the nineteenth century, seeing itself as ‘a Creole church for the Atlantic world’ (106).Dickerson shows how building the infrastructure of the denomination, including flagship institutions like Wilberforce University in Ohio, could sometimes sit uncomfortably with the AME's ‘insurgent’ emphases, with commentators like Frederick Douglass criticizing the AME leadership, albeit unfairly, for failing to prioritize the cause of abolition. During the era of Reconstruction the AME grew rapidly in the southern states of the United States; thereafter, economic pressures and the impact of ‘Jim Crow’ segregation led to a massive migration to the industrial and urban north in the decades around World War I. Both developments posed challenges and opportunities for the denomination in ministering to new populations and addressing deep human needs. The narrative here weaves together the broad themes of political, social, and ecclesiastical history with case studies of individuals like Winfield H. Mixon, of Alabama, Bishop Henry M. Turner, the Social Gospellers Reverdy and Emma Ransom, and the Garveyite R. H. Tobitt. The final chapters discuss the civil rights years and the AME's sense of being a global church by the closing decades of the twentieth century.The tension between institution and insurgency surfaces in each chapter: over abolitionism before the Civil War and Tuskegee-style strategies in the ‘Jim Crow’ era; over responses to Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and proto-apartheid in South Africa; over civil rights and equal rights. But other themes emerge: pressure for indigenous rather than African American leadership in AME churches in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America; challenges to episcopal autocracy and occasional abuses of power; the call to recognize and fully affirm the ministry and leadership of women. Dickerson acknowledges that ‘respectable’ AME congregations sometimes proved less than welcoming to southern migrants and African musical traditions, and that the AME lost ground to Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal denominations at the beginning and end of the twentieth century, although he records the success of AME megachurches like Allen Cathedral in Jamaica, New York. He also notes that the United Methodist Church had a far better record of appointing black women bishops than the AME, although twenty-first-century General Conferences worked hard to redress this situation.Threaded through this history is an insistence that those nurtured in the AME Church remembered their heritage, and that the denomination continued to draw on its African and Methodist origins. AME heritage mattered to Shirley Graham Du Bois and to Dave Chappelle, and the AME retains its place within the structures of World Methodism. How the Wesleys' Methodism and its later expressions are inflected in a worldwide denomination that is nonetheless predominantly African American in membership and ethos remains a fascinating phenomenon.Grateful thanks are due to Dennis Dickerson for this thoroughly researched and beautifully written study of one of World Methodism's most significant branches.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A History

The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A History