Today’s edition of the Virginia Baptist Religious Herald continues efforts to reconstruct the Old Confederacy as a righteous slave regime that was overwhelmed by the military might of an ungodly Northern people. Upset that Missouri is requiring all ministers to sign an oath of allegiance to the United States, Southern Baptists lament that the mandate…
This month the Missouri Equal Rights League is formed in the Eighth Street Colored Baptist Church of St. Louis. It is one of many state colored organizations established this year and designed to ensure that African Americans obtain voting rights and other legal freedoms. The establishment of good schools for black children is also a…
Edmond Kelley is Tennessee’s first ordained African American Baptist minister. Born a slave in Tennessee in 1817, he escaped to Massachusetts, where in 1851 he published his life’s story to date. Having secretly taught himself to read during his youth, in 1843 Kelley was ordained by the white First Baptist Church of Nashville. Three years…