THE CALL OF POLITICS
This favorable beginning, however, was not indicative of a
straightforward attack on the tents of wickedness. Many Negroes who were
trained for the ministry never entered thereupon because of the lure of
politics during the days of Reconstruction. Some who had engaged in this
Christian work found out that in spite of the most thorough training by
pious men, they were not fitted for such a calling and abandoned it for
the political arena. Others who were seemingly successful in the
ministry divided their time between their profession and politics,
either because of the exigencies of the situation or the desire to
attain positions of prominence in keeping with the traditions of the
white people of the South, who have emphasized unduly the status of the
professional class.
There were during the Reconstruction period, moreover, so many other
necessities with which the Negroes had to be supplied that the Negro
preacher, often the only one in a community usually sufficiently well
developed to lead the people, had to devote his time not only to church
work but to every matter of concern to the race. In some respects,
the Negroes after the war were not far removed from the conditions
obtaining in the North before the war. Many of their former problems
still confronted them. The chief difference was that after the war the
Negroes had fighting ground on which to stand to wage a battle for those
things which, having been begrudgingly granted, were being gradually
taken away.
That the Negro preacher should continue a man of so many interests was
but a natural consequence of the trend in the development of the race in
this country. Up to this time the Negroes had established and maintained
only one institution of their own. That was their church. When the time
came for them to exercise other functions in society this one
institution had to be overworked to supply the needs of others. Inasmuch
as the church then became the center of so many activities the minister
in charge often had to take the lead in shaping the policy of his people
that they might advance in the right way. Ministers who abandoned their
pulpits for the political world may be condemned as deserting their post
of duty; but when one considers the call of their race in the situation
in which it was and the valuable services some of them rendered, he
cannot hastily conclude that the race thereby lost more than it gained.
History should be studied sympathetically. The devotee to the faith
should not denounce these men as recreant to Christianity and the
student of politics must not dub them as interlopers in a forbidden
field. Never before had a race been liberated under such circumstances.
Never before had a group in such an undeveloped state been called upon
to do so many things in such a short time. That the procedure of the
race in this infinitely complex situation differed somewhat from that of
others who had centuries to do what the Negroes were required to
accomplish in a day, should be no cause of surprise.
In this respect, moreover, the Negroes did not differ widely from the
whites. It is true that there has not been any period in the history of
the whites when such a large percentage of the ministry freely
participated in matters of the world, but the Negro minister found in
the record of the whites precedents for all of his deviation from the
customary course of the preacher of the Word. In their frontier
condition the pioneering whites had often been reduced to the necessity
of following the leadership of the versatile minister just as the
Negroes were during the Reconstruction period. Among them the minister
was sometimes the man of all work. He had a farm or business from which
he obtained most of his means of subsistence; he of necessity often
studied law and practiced in the local courts; he not infrequently
aspired to office and, if successful, sometimes forgot his beginnings.
And even within the memory of the living, examples are not wanting.
Ex-Governor Atkinson of West Virginia was a minister in the Methodist
Church and, like the Negro during these trying days, answered the call
of his constituents. James A. Garfield, who attained the presidency of
the United States, abandoned this exalted profession for the more
interesting role of politics.
The salient facts of the careers of some of these ministers thus allured
are more than interesting. Dr. William J. Simmons after being educated
and engaged in the Baptist ministry for some time entered politics in
Florida about 1874. Well received by his neighbors, he soon became
county clerk and then county commissioner. He served as chairman of the
county campaign committee and a member of the district congressional
committee. In the campaign of Hayes and Tilden, Simmons was a
conspicuous figure. He stumped the State for the Republican candidates
with such success as materially to aid the cause in that he helped to
raise the Republican majority of his county from 525 to 986 when the
whole State gave Hayes a majority of only 147. Dr. Simmons later settled
in Louisville, where he distinguished himself as a minister and as the
founder of what is now known as the William J. Simmons University.
[Illustration: DR. WILLIAM J. SIMMONS]
Dr. James Poindexter's career shows how difficult it was for the Negro
ministers to avoid politics. Coming from Virginia, as a pioneer among
those who sought better opportunities in the Northwest, he was at once a
serious leader. He became a minister in the Baptist Church even before
the Civil War and never actually sought an official position, hoping
rather to maintain himself as a fearless speaker and writer in behalf of
his oppressed people. Yet he too was to some extent attracted to
politics in self-defense. He was the first man of color in Ohio
nominated for the House of Delegates, but was defeated. We find him some
years later serving as the foreman of a grand jury. He was appointed a
trustee of the Ohio University at Athens but the Democratic Senate of
the State would not confirm him. He was for four years a member of the
City Council of Columbus, serving that body as vice-president. Later he
was appointed to fill a vacancy on the School Board of Columbus, was
elected to the position at the expiration of the term, and reelected
against great odds over a Democratic opponent in 1887.
[Illustration: DR. JAMES POINDEXTER
Pioneer Baptist preacher in Ohio.]
Poindexter's position in this case, like that of so many others, may be
stated in his own words. Addressing an audience on the "Pulpit and
Politics," he said: "Nor can a preacher more than any other citizen
plead his religious work or the sacredness of that work as an exemption
from duty. Going to the Bible to learn the relation of the pulpit to
politics, and accepting the prophets, Christ, and apostles, and the
pulpit of their times, and their precepts and examples as the guide of
the pulpit to-day, I think that their conclusion will be that wherever
there is a sin to be rebuked, no matter by whom committed, and ill to be
averted or good to be achieved by our country or mankind, there is a
place for the pulpit to make itself felt and heard. The truth is, all
the help the preachers and all other good and worthy citizens can give
by taking hold of politics is needed in order to keep the government out
of bad hands and secure the ends for which governments are formed."
Dr. J. T. White, another preacher of the Reconstruction period, attained
much distinction in this field. Fortunate in having acquired a
fundamental education in Indianapolis prior to the war, he easily made
an impression at the Consolidated Baptist Convention in St. Louis in
1865 when he received a call to a small Baptist Church of Helena,
Arkansas. Among these communicants he toiled successfully without
concern as to other affairs until 1868, when the reconstruction of the
State was begun. He was induced to present himself as a candidate for
delegate to the constitutional convention and was elected. He figured
conspicuously in framing the constitution and canvassed the State to
secure its ratification. He then became a part of the restored State
government, serving his fellow citizens as a member of the House of
Delegates, to which he was twice re-elected. He was chosen to serve one
term in the State Senate, after which he was appointed by the Governor,
Commissioner of Public Works and Internal Improvements. During this same
period, however, he was doing his best work in building and edifying
churches at Helena and Little Rock, and extending Baptist influence
throughout the State and nation.
G. W. Gayles, a Mississippian of this type, acquired before his
emancipation enough education to read intelligently. Having an
inclination to study the Bible, he aspired to the ministry, for which he
was set apart by a council of reputable Baptist ministers of Greenville
in 1867. Going to Bolivar county to find a more inviting field, he
became the pastor of the Kindling Altar Church in which he made an
honorable record. He soon became involved in public affairs, however, as
is evidenced by his appointment as member of the Board of Police for a
district in Bolivar County by Governor A. Ames. The following year he
was appointed Justice of the Peace in that county by Governor J. L.
Alcorn, but later in that same month he was made a supervisor of another
district in that county. He was then elected a member of the Mississippi
Legislature, serving a term of two years in the lower house and then as
State Senator from the 28th district, beginning 1877 and continuing into
the eighties, when there had been no other Negro in that body since
1875.
In spite of his political activities, however, Gayles did not abandon
religious work. Beginning in 1872, he served for many years as
missionary for the counties of Bolivar and Sunflower and then in that
capacity for Coahoma. Appreciating his worth, the Baptist State
Missionary Convention made him its corresponding secretary in 1874
and president in 1876, with the power to edit a denominational organ
known as _The Baptist Signal_, by which he showed himself a national as
well as a State character.
Jesse Freeman Boulden was forced into politics against his will. In
Philadelphia he acquired an elementary education. He later embraced
religion in Maryland, and in 1853 connected himself with the Union
Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He then became pastor of the Zion
Baptist Church in Chicago, where he was succeeded by Richard DeBaptiste
as pastor of the combined Olivet Baptist Church in 1863. As the war was
then turning out favorable to the Union forces, Boulden called together
at Brooklyn, Illinois, in 1864, a group of Illinois Baptist churches
known as the Wood River Association to consider the importance of
following the army and looking after the interests of the denomination
in the South. This work then engaged the attention of Mr. Boulden to the
extent that he gave up his church in 1865 and settled at Natchez,
Mississippi. This was in many respects the turning point of his career.
He immediately plunged into political matters as a leader to the manner
born. He presented to Congress the first petition of that State praying
that Negroes be granted the right of franchise. Boulden held the first
emancipation celebration in 1866, and began to lecture to Negroes on the
duty of the hour. Thus interested, he was made a factor in the
organization of the Republican party in the north-eastern part of the
State. He made the first Republican speech in the court house at
Columbus and was a member of the first Mississippi Republican State
Convention in 1867.
In all of this, however, he was not seeking personal gain; for brought
out against his will as a candidate for the lower house of the
legislature, he once thought of declining, but finally yielded, thinking
that he might be able to do some good. In this position he took the lead
in piloting through the legislature the election of Hiram Revells as
United States Senator, and, after helping B. K. Bruce to become
Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, used his influence to make him also a
member of the upper national body. He, like many others of his time,
however, never deserted the ministry altogether for politics. After
serving various churches and editing _The Baptist Reflector_ of
Columbus, Mississippi, he rendered his most valuable service as general
agent of the American Baptist Home Mission Society for the State of New
York.
P. H. A. Braxton, pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Baltimore, and
the Rev. D. F. Rivers, once a member of the Tennessee Legislature,
seemed to have had their day in politics and then entered upon the
ministry in contradistinction to most men of their time. Leaving the
farm on which he was born a slave in Virginia, Braxton went into the
stave business. Entering politics in King William county soon
thereafter, however, he became constable in 1872, acquitting himself
with honor. In the meantime he studied law with some degree of success.
He then went to Washington, D.C., where he received an appointment in
the custom house service in which he was converted in 1875. It seems
that he lost the desire for politics thereafter. He was commissioned to
preach in 1875, and appointed general agent of the consolidated American
Baptist Missionary Convention in 1878. He took charge of the Calvary
Baptist Church in Baltimore in 1879 and there made a record for himself
and his denomination as a forceful preacher, successful organizer, and
radical reformer. Rev. Mr. Rivers, after toiling in the West, came to
Washington where he is still an active pastor.
Allen Allensworth prepared for the ministry at the Ely Normal School and
at Roger Williams University. He rose rapidly in the denomination,
serving the Kentucky Baptists as their financial agent, the pastor of
churches at Elizabethtown, Franklin, Louisville, Bowling Green, and
Cincinnati, and as a missionary in the employ of the American Baptist
Publication Society. During these years, however, he was equally active
as a leader in politics. The Republicans of Kentucky made much use of
him as a campaigner, as he was a speaker of well-known power. By this
party he was chosen to serve as an elector for the State-at-large on the
Garfield-Arthur ticket in 1880 and was sent as delegate from that State
to the National Republican Convention which met in Chicago in 1884. No
one knows how far his political activity would have gone, had he not
entered the army as chaplain before the Negro political organization in
the South had collapsed.
Christopher H. Payne, who with the possible exception of Mordecai W.
Johnson, has been the most intelligent preacher of color to toil in West
Virginia, shows in his career how the political world finally absorbed
some Negro ministers altogether. He began as a teacher in West Virginia,
where by dint of energy he mastered the fundamentals of education. He
then became converted and on realizing a call to the ministry, entered
the Richmond Institute where he distinguished himself as a promising
scholar. After serving the American Baptist Publication Society as a
Sunday school missionary and as pastor of churches in Virginia and West
Virginia, he became interested in politics in which he participated not
only as a speaker but as an editor. He spent some time reading law,
secured admission to the bar, and practiced in the local courts. In the
course of time, he became more widely known as a figure in politics than
as a churchman, although he was at the same time serving as pastor of
some church and presiding over Baptist Associations and for years the
Baptist State Convention of West Virginia. In 1896, he was elected a
member of the West Virginia Legislature, the first Negro to be so
honored in that State. He was later appointed a deputy Collector of
Internal Revenue under Nathan B. Scott, and in 1903 was appointed Consul
to the Virgin Islands, where he served fourteen years. Since the recent
purchase of these possessions by the United States he has remained there
to practice law.
Bishop W. B. Derrick of the African Methodist Episcopal Church also had
a political career. From a brief career on the high seas he enlisted in
the United States Navy during the Civil War and upon being converted
entered the ministry of the African Methodist Church, serving with
distinction in the Virginia Conference. Having by the end of the
seventies attained this position of influence, he was induced to take an
active part in the politics of that State at the time when one of the
local parties desired to readjust the State debt. He allied himself with
the "Funders," the party in favor of paying the debt as it was
contracted, since he believed that his attitude was in harmony with the
principles of the National Republican Party. Thinking that his people
were about to be made tools in the hands of ambitious and unscrupulous
men, Dr. Derrick fearlessly denounced the "Readjusters" as a clique
seeking to repudiate the payment of an honest debt. As this contest
developed into a vindictive political battle engendering much local
strife out of which the "Readjusters" emerged victors, Dr. Derrick,
deeming it best to leave Virginia, resigned his charge and spent some
time visiting his relatives in the West Indies. He returned to this
country to resume his ministry in which he so rapidly developed that he
became a popular bishop of his church.
[Illustration: BISHOP W. B. DERRICK]
Bishop H. M. Turner, one of the outstanding men of the Negro race, had
his day also in politics. He equipped himself for the ministry by
private instruction obtained under adverse circumstances, joined the
Methodist Church in 1848, and transferred to the African Methodists in
1867, rising rapidly in this last-mentioned connection from the position
of an itinerant preacher in St. Louis to an eldership in Washington, and
a chaplaincy in the United States Army. During these years, however, he
was most active in politics. In 1867 he was appointed by the National
Republican Committee to superintend the organization of the Negroes in
Georgia. In this capacity he stumped the State and wrote many articles
which he spread broadcast to direct his people in his way. That year he
was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention. He was next
chosen a member of the legislature the following year and re-elected in
1870, when he was expelled on account of his color. President Grant
appointed him post-master of Macon in 1869; but he had to resign on
account of persecution. He was afterward appointed Coast Inspector of
Customs and United States Government Detective, but after holding the
position a few years he resigned it to meet the demands of the church
whose cause, in spite of his political activities, he had never
abandoned, and whose good judgment made him the influential bishop of
the denomination.
[Illustration: BISHOP H. M. TURNER]
Speaking of his career himself, he said on an occasion: "And my labors
have not stopped in the religious sphere, but it is well known to every
one that I have done more work in the political field than any five men
in the State, if you will take out Colonel Bryant. I first organized the
Republican party in this State, and have worked for its maintenance and
perpetuity as no other man in the State has. I have put more men in the
field, made more speeches, organized more union leagues, political
associations, clubs, and have written more campaign documents, that
received larger circulation, than any other man in the State. Why, one
campaign document I wrote alone was so acceptable that it took four
million copies to satisfy the public. And as you are well aware, these
labors have not been performed amid sunshine and prosperity. I have been
the constant target of Democratic abuse and venom, and white Republican
jealousy. The newspapers have teemed with all kind of slander, accusing
me of every crime in the catalogue of villainy; I have been arrested and
tried on some of the wildest charges and most groundless accusations
ever distilled from the laboratory of hell. Witnesses have been paid as
high as four thousand dollars to swear me into the penitentiary; white
preachers have sworn that I tried to get up insurrections, etc., a
crime punishable with death; and all such deviltry has been resorted to
for the purpose of breaking me down, and with all they have not hurt a
hair of my head, nor even bothered my brain longer than they were going
through the farce of adjudication.... I invariably let them say their
say and do their do; while they were studying against me, I was studying
for the interest of the church, and working for the success of my
party."
Richard Harvey Cain, converted in 1841 and installed as a preacher in
the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844, saw himself rising to a
position of usefulness after his training at Wilberforce, followed by
his pastoral work in the New York and South Carolina Conferences.
Although he had unusually extended his field of labor by successful
efforts at Summerville, Lincolnville, Georgetown, Marion, and Sumter, he
had too much energy to be confined altogether to the church. Interesting
himself in whatever touched the life of his people, he edited a
Republican newspaper in 1868. He secured his election as a member of the
Reconstruction constitutional convention in South Carolina and played an
important role in rebuilding the government of that State along liberal
lines. He served two years as State Senator from the Charleston
District. In 1879 he was given a much more honorable recognition in
being elected a member of the Forty-third Congress. He was again thus
honored in being elected to the Forty-fifth Congress in 1881 and "served
with distinction and marked ability," making most eloquent speeches in
the advocacy of civil rights for the Negro.
His close connection with the church, however, was still maintained, for
he was elected bishop in 1880 and assigned to the Louisiana and Texas
district. Speaking of him as a man remarkable for uniting these two
fields, Bishop Derrick said: "He surely could be considered a captain of
the hosts, one of the kindliest and pleasantest of Christian statesmen
and a man of clear good judgment blended with a strong resolution and
firmness, which made him the master of many difficult situations in the
active and political career which marked his statesmanship with
brilliant success."
Bishop B. W. Arnett, one of the most popular men who have hitherto risen
in the African Methodist Church, served his people also in these two
ways. When political opportunities were first offered the Negroes in the
South he had already served as a teacher and had passed through the
gradations of the ministry to a position of influence in his
denomination in Ohio. The need was too urgent and the call too
imperative for him not to participate in the affairs of his State and
nation. Once in politics, he easily became a commanding figure even in
Ohio, where because of the small black population a Negro could not
secure the following easily obtained at that time in the Southern
States. In 1885 he was elected to the Ohio Legislature from Greene
County, thus securing the opportunity to fight for the repeal of the
nefarious "Black Laws" which disgraced the statute books of Ohio prior
to the Civil War. Arnett piloted through the lower house the bill to
this effect and with Senator Ely supporting it in the Senate, the feat
was triumphantly accomplished. Never did a Negro serve his people to
better advantage. At the same time he was using his influence to correct
national abuses and was earnestly laboring for the extension of his
church, which he honorably served as financial secretary, statistician,
and finally as bishop.
[Illustration: BISHOP B. W. ARNETT]
Bishop James W. Hood, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in
his day one of the most influential men of color in the United States,
found himself also in the political world. He began as a preacher in
Nova Scotia in 1860, served later at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and then
went to North Carolina, where his successful work exalted him to the
bishopric in 1872. His very going to North Carolina, however, had a
political setting. He went to Newbern as a missionary under General
Butler's invitation to the churches to send missionaries, even while the
place was under the fire of the Confederate forces. When the war in that
area was cleared up and Reconstruction was undertaken Bishop Hood was
among the first to participate therein. He was elected president of the
convention of Negroes assembled at Raleigh in October, 1865, one of
the first, if not the first, political convocation of this sort ever
assembled in the South. On this occasion he so fearlessly advocated
equal rights for the Negro that he was warned by the people around that
his life would be in danger, if he did not desist therefrom. In 1867 he
was elected as delegate to the constitutional convention of North
Carolina, in which he took such an active part in framing the
fundamental law, incorporating into it such liberal provisions for
homesteads and public schools that it was spoken of by the reactionaries
as Hood's constitution until it was amended in 1875. He served as a
magistrate under the provisional government in North Carolina and later
became a deputy Collector of Internal Revenue for the United States.
[Illustration: BISHOP J. W. HOOD]
In 1868 he was appointed an agent of the State Board of Education and
Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction, receiving a salary of
$1,500 a year; but he did not abandon his church work, having built up a
large congregation at Charlotte during the three years he served in
these positions. He traveled also in the interest of the Freedmen's
Bureau in the capacity of an Assistant Superintendent. Thus in a
position to help his people, Bishop Hood had in 1870 as many as 49,000
Negro children in school. He had established for Negroes a department
for the deaf, dumb, and blind and had about sixty inmates under care and
instruction at the expense of the State. He hoped to establish a State
university, but the undoing of Reconstruction prevented him from
reaching that end. He was named in 1872 by the Republican caucus as
their candidate for Secretary of State, but he declined the honor. He
served that year as delegate at large to the National Republican
Convention, which nominated Grant the second time. In 1876 he was chosen
temporary chairman of the Republican State Convention, which he served
with much satisfaction.
This account of the Negro in politics, however, does not establish the
fact that either the majority or even the best prepared of the Negro
ministry devoted all of their time to politics. There were many striking
examples to the contrary. Bishop Daniel Payne lived long after the Civil
War to promote education and religion, and when he died was regarded by
many as the most useful man of the race. Bishop Lee, as President of
Wilberforce University and a functionary of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, rendered his race constructive service. Dr. Alexander
Crummell took no active part in politics, although he fearlessly spoke
out for the political and civil rights of his race. Dr. J. Sella Martin,
prominent in the ministry before and after the Civil War, attained the
distinction of one of the most eloquent men of his race without
permitting politics to consume much of his time. Bishop Grant, one of
the most useful men of his denomination, did not find it necessary to
seek honors beyond the limits of the church. John Jasper, known to fame
as the Baptist preacher of the Sun-Moving theory, established for
himself throughout Virginia and adjacent States a reputation for piety
and sincerity, which, without political influence, made him a power in
the country.
[Illustration: JOHN JASPER
A conservative Virginia preacher.]
Among these consecrated churchmen, moreover, none can be considered a
better example than Bishop B. T. Tanner, a well-educated man, who became
distinguished in the services of his church years before the
emancipation. His addresses exhibited learning and mature thought and
the several works which he published entitled him to the distinction of
being one of the most scholarly Negroes of his time. Among these works
may be mentioned his _Apology for African Methodism_, _The Negro's
Origin_, _An Outline of Our History and Government_; _The Negro, African
and American_. In 1884 he was made editor of the _African Biblical
Review_, which he so popularized that he was soon chosen bishop by his
denomination.
Bishop L. H. Holsey of the C. M. E. Church distinguished himself by a
career equally as honorable. After rendering faithful service as a
minister in the church he was elevated to the episcopacy at a time when
the church needed the guidance of a master hand. The manner in which he
addressed himself to his task and the good results which he obtained
soon convinced his communicants that the selection was not a mistake.
That during his day the Colored Methodists did their task so well was
due in a measure, of course, to the numerous sacrifices made by other
faithful churchmen of his denomination. Among these should be mentioned
Bishops Elias Cottrell, Isaac Lane, R. S. Williams, N. C. Cleaves, R. A.
Carter and C. H. Phillips, who still stand as the respectable and
trustworthy leaders of their denomination.
[Illustration: BISHOP HOLSEY, of the C. M. E. Church.]
Deserving of honorable mention in this connection are many distinguished
Negroes who impressed the world as preachers of power. They not only
built imposing edifices and pastored large congregations, but went from
place to place in the State and country impressing the world with the
power of God unto salvation. So generally did they ingratiate themselves
into the favor of the public that they passed among the people as seers
and prophets of a former period. Among these should be mentioned Dr. W.
Bishop Johnson and Dr. C. M. Tanner of the District of Columbia; Dr.
Harvey Johnson of Baltimore; E. K. Love and W. J. White of Georgia;
Daniel Stratton, Nelson Barnett, and R. J. Perkins of West Virginia; and
J. J. Worlds and L. W. Boone of North Carolina. There were also James
Holmes, for years the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richmond,
Virginia; Dr. Richard Wells, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church
in the same city; Anthony Binga, a churchman of scholarly bearing, who
wrote important dissertations of a theological nature while pasturing
the leading Baptist Church in Manchester, Virginia; and Dr. William
H. Stokes, a worker of much influence in Richmond, still speaking
fearlessly in behalf of his people.
[Illustration: DR. E. K. LOVE
A popular minister in Savannah, Georgia.]
Identified with this serious group was Richard DeBaptiste, who migrated
with his free parents of color from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to the
Northwest after the restrictions placed upon the Negroes of this class
in Virginia became intolerable. His first important work was that of
teaching a public school for colored youth in the Springfield township
at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, where he later organized and pastored a Baptist
Church from 1860 to 1863. He then became pastor of the Olivet Baptist
Church in Chicago, a charge which he held until 1882. Serving in this
capacity, he purchased two building sites at a cost of $16,000 and built
two brick church edifices costing respectively $15,000 and $18,000.
[Illustration: REV. RICHARD DEBAPTISTE
A preacher of the Word in Chicago.]
His work as a minister, however, was in no sense local. He was elected
corresponding secretary of the Wood River Association in 1864, was a
prominent figure and officer in the Northwestern and Southern Baptist
Convention organized in 1865, and was chosen president of the American
Baptist Missionary Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, serving it
consecutively for four years. He was thereafter elected president at
intervals and remained a commanding figure in the convention because of
his power and influence in the church. Manifesting further interest in
the work of the denomination, he contributed to the church literature
through the _Chicago Conservator_, the _Western Herald_, and the
_National Monitor_. In fact, in his day he was not only the outstanding
minister of his denomination in the West, but one of the most
influential men of his race.
One of the most prominent ministers of the Reconstruction period who
were not deterred from their course by politics was Rufus L. Perry. Born
a slave in Nashville, Tennessee, where because of the liberal attitude
of the whites toward the Negroes, he, in spite of his condition, was
permitted to attend a free school for Negroes, Perry had, even before
the Civil War, laid a foundation upon which he well built thereafter. He
escaped from slavery in 1852 and entered upon the study of theology at
the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Seminary, graduating with the class of 1861,
when he was ordained as pastor of the Baptist Church at Ann Arbor,
Michigan. He later served as a pastor at St. Catherine's, Ontario, and
at Buffalo and Brooklyn, New York. He had then convinced the world that
he was "very logical, a clear reasoner, close and active debater, deep
thinker, and excellent writer," "a man of splendid natural abilities,"
who "goes at once to the bottom of any subject that he undertakes."
[Illustration: DR. RUFUS L. PERRY]
Upon the dawn of freedom he entered upon the larger duties in the
service of the Negroes, doing at first missionary and educational work
among the freedmen, endeavoring to evangelize and elevate the race
through the system of religious education. Seeing the need for an organ
through which his people and his denomination could speak to the world,
he edited _The Sunbeam_, served as co-editor of the _American Baptist_,
and later edited _The People's Journal_ and _The National Monitor_. His
articles always showed his interest in his denomination, his knowledge
of general literature, and his grasp of men and things. For ten years he
served as corresponding secretary of the Consolidated American Baptist
Missionary Convention and was later made corresponding secretary of the
American Educational Association and of the American Baptist Free
Mission Society.
Having given much attention to the study of ethnology and the classics,
he doubtless impressed the world most by writing a book entitled _The
Cushites; or the Children of Ham as seen by the Ancient Historians and
Poets_. In this work he showed remarkable ability for research and
extensive knowledge of the social sciences. He undertook to refute the
statement that the Ethiopians and the Egyptians were not black persons,
endeavored to disabuse the public mind of the impropriety of a
contemptuous attitude to the Negroes because of their bondage, inasmuch
as all races have at times been enslaved, and eloquently produced
historical facts to convince thinking men as to the important
achievements of the Negroes in their more fortunate ages in the past. He
certainly made the impression of being one of the ablest men in the
United States, and will long be remembered as a scholar making for the
race a defense which many of his contemporaries were not prepared to
appreciate.
The ministry was sufficiently attractive also to Dr. George W. Lee, who
began his career in North Carolina. After having distinguished himself
by efficient service in that State, he was, in 1885, called to the
pastorate of the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church to succeed the Rev. J. H.
Brooks, its founder, who passed away the previous year. Dr. Lee was
noted especially for three significant elements of character. He was a
promoter of African missions, was always disposed to help the under-man
in a struggle, and made himself a patron of the youth aspiring to
leadership. His pastorate was characterized by important achievements
bearing on the progress of not only his congregation but that of his
denomination. Noted for his originality and ability to master a
situation, he soon attracted a large following and increased the
membership of his church almost to 4,000. He easily became a man of
national reputation, and in his travels abroad so impressed the people
wherever he went that he passed as an international character.
[Illustration: DR. GEORGE W. LEE]
With the possible exception of Dr. C. A. Tindley, the talented Methodist
minister of Philadelphia, probably the greatest preacher of power
developed during the last generation has been Dr. C. T. Walker. Coming
under the influence of Christian missionaries and of the Atlanta
Baptist College, he had his beginnings determined in an atmosphere of
religious education. For forty years, excepting five years when he had
charge of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York City, he was pastor of
the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Augusta, Georgia. His church in Augusta
was attended not only by thousands of his own race, but by hundreds of
winter tourists, who heard him with unusual satisfaction. Among these
were former President Taft, John D. Rockefeller, Gen. Rush C. Hawkins,
Dr. David Gregg and Lyman B. Goff. With the support of such a large
number this church undertook to supply the needs of the community,
developing into an institutional enterprise with all of the activities
of a social welfare agency. This expansion necessitated a new building,
which he erected at a cost of $185,000.
[Illustration: DR. C. T. WALKER]
Dr. Walker was interested in all things promoting the uplift of the
race. He was the founder of the now spacious 135th Street Branch, Young
Men's Christian Association, New York City, and figured largely in the
establishment of a similar branch for his people in Augusta, Georgia. He
was one of the prominent figures of the National Baptist Convention of
the United States, being vice-president of the organization when he
died, as well as vice-president of the Georgia Baptist State Convention
and moderator of the Walker Association. He traveled extensively in
Europe and the Holy Land and was the author of a number of books of
travel and also of sermons. His main work at home and abroad, however,
was that of an evangelist whose fame as such so rapidly extended that he
was one of the most popular speakers in the country, attracting larger
crowds than any other Negro of his time.