Sunday, April 10, 2016

Richard Allen ― The Black Conservative Who Founded the AME Church

200 years ago yesterday, Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church & was elected their first bishop.




(Christianity Today)

Richard Allen and his associate Absalom Jones were the leaders of the black Methodist community in Philadelphia in 1793 when a yellow fever epidemic broke out. Many people, black and white, were dying. Hundreds more fled the city. City officials approached Allen and asked if the black community could help serve as nurses to the suffering and help bury the dead.

Allen and Jones recognized the racism inherent in the request: asking black folks to do the risky, dirty work for whites. But they consented—partly from compassion and partly to show the white community, in one more way, the moral and spiritual equality of blacks.

Read the full article HERE.
His contributions to black conservatism HERE.