The Church Awakens: African Americans and the Search for Justice

1624

First Baptism of African Slaves in American Colonial (Anglican) Church

1695

Episcopal Ministry to African Americans is Organized at Goose Creek, South Carolina

1702-1780

Society of the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG)

1776-1781

The American Revolution

1784

Samuel Seabury Consecrated First American Bishop by Scottish Bishops

1789

Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America Established

1789

William White (Pennsylvania), Presiding Bishop

1789

Samuel Seabury (Connecticut), Presiding Bishop

1792

Samuel Provoost (New York), Presiding Bishop

1794

St. Thomas African Episcopal Church Established and Accepted into Union with the Diocese of Pennsylvania

1795

William White, Presiding Bishop

1804

First African American Episcopal Priest Ordained

1818

The Cardinal Black Parish of St. Philip’s Church in Harlem, New York is Established

1821

Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (PECUSA) Formed, the Church’s Corporate Form and Missionary

1824

The Cardinal Black Parish of St. Philip’s Church in of St. James Lafayette Square in Baltimore, Maryland is Established

1835

General Convention Votes to Send Bishops as Missionaries

1836

Alexander Viets Griswold (Massachusetts), Presiding Bishop

1843

Philander Chase (Illinois), Presiding Bishop

1845

The Cardinal Black Parish of St. Matthew’s in Detroit, Michigan is Established

1849

The Cardinal Black Parish of Calvary Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina is Established

1852

Thomas Church Brownwell (Connecticut), Presiding Bishop

1853

Alexander Crummell Becomes a Missionary and Teacher in Liberia

1854

The Cardinal Black Parish of the Good Shepherd in Mobile, Alabama is Established

1863

Birth of The Reverend George Freeman Bragg

1865

The Protestant Episcopal Freedmen’s Commission Formed

1865

John Henry Hopkins (Vermont), Presiding Bishop

1867

St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute Founded in Raleigh, North Carolina

1867

The First Meeting of Anglican Bishops is held in London at Lambeth Palace

1868

Benjamin Bosworth Smith (Kentucky), Presiding Bishop

1871

Women’s Auxiliary Formed

1874

James Holly Consecrated Missionary Bishop of Haiti

1874

First Ordination of a Black Churchman in Mississippi

1878

Bishop Payne Divinity School Founded

1883

Brotherhood of St. Andrew Founded in Chicago

1883

"Sewanee Conference" of Southern Bishops

1884

First African American Congregation, St. Augustine’s, Galveston, Established in Texas

1884

First African American Delegates Sent to General Convention

1884

Alfred Lee (Delaware), Presiding Bishop

1885

Church Commission for Work Among Colored People (CCWACP)

1887

John Williams (Connecticut), Presiding Bishop

1888

St. Paul Normal and Industrial School Founded in Lawrenceville, Virginia

1889

United Thank Offering Established by the Women’s Auxiliary

1891

Phillips Brooks Elected Bishop of Massachusetts

1897

Voorhees College Founded in Denmark, South Carolina

1899

Thomas March Clark (Rhode Island), Presiding Bishop

1903

Daniel Sylvester Tuttle (Missouri), Presiding Bishop

1904

Discussion of Suffragan Bishops Commences

1906

American Church Institute for Negroes Established

1910

Amendment of Canon Law

1918

Bishops Demby and Delany Consecrated Suffragan Bishops for Colored Work

1919

Church Missions House at 281 Park Avenue South Becomes Center for Mission Program and Administration of the New National Council.

1919

General Convention Adopts the First Churchwide Anti-lynching Resolution

1923

Alexander Charles Garrett (Dallas), Presiding Bishop

1924

Ethelbert Talbot (Bethlehem), Presiding Bishop

1926

John Gardner Murray (Maryland), Presiding Bishop

1929

Charles Palmerston Anderson (Chicago), Presiding Bishop

1930

James Dewolf Perry (Rhode Island), Presiding Bishop

1930

6,304 Clergy and 1,939,453 Baptized Members

1931

Black Churchmen in Virginia Granted Voting Rights

1935

Diocese of Southern Virginia Gives Vote to Black Clergy

1938

Henry St. George Tucker (Virginia), Presiding Bishop

1940

6,335 Clergy and 2,171,562 Baptized Members

1943

Bi-racial Joint Committee on Minorities Formed in National Council

1946

Federal Council of Churches’ Condemns Discrimination

1946

Black Churchmen in Southern Virginia Granted Voting Rights

1947

Black Churchmen in South Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas Granted Voting Rights

1947

Henry Knox Sherrill (Massachusetts), Presiding Bishop

1949

Bishop Payne Divinity School Closes

1949

Pro-Civil Rights Clergy Begin Ministry in Inner City

1950

6,654 Clergy and 2,540,548 Baptized Members

1951

John Walker is Admitted as the First African American Student to Attend Virginia Theological Seminary

1952

General Convention Adopts Resolution on Racial Discrimination

1952

Dr. Caution Presents Report on Post-war Negro Work

1952

Seminary Upholds Exclusion on Grounds of Race

1953

Seminary Reverses Decision under Protest

1953

Diocese of South Carolina Allows Blacks to Participate

1955

General Convention Changes Meeting Site from Houston to Honolulu

1956

National Council Aims for Total Desegregation

1956

National Council Creates the "Southern Project"

1957

The Era of the Racial Episcopate Ends

1958

General Convention Supports Equal Opportunity and House of Bishops Releases Pastoral Letter

1958

Arthur Lichtenberger (Missiouri), Presiding Bishop

1959

Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU) Forms

1960

ESCRU Supports Church Demonstrations

1960

9,079 Clergy and 3,444,265 Baptized Members

1961

ESCRU Addresses Intermarriage and Alienates Much of Southern Church

1961

15 Clergy Arrested on Prayer Pilgrimage

1961

Church Declares Prejudice to Be Inconsistent with the Gospel

1961

Episcopal Hospital Targeted for Protests

1962

Episcopal Day School Denies Entrance to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Son

1962

African-American Elected Suffragan Bishop

1963

Presiding Bishop Commits Church to Action

1963

Religious Groups Join March on Washington

1963

National Council Staff Members Arrested at Protest

1964

National Council of Churches Establishes Delta Ministry

1964

General Convention Adopts Policy Prohibiting Racial Discrimination in Churches

1964

King Speaks to ESCRU

1965

Seminary Students Work in Selma

1965

Jonathan Daniels Killed

1965

John Elbridge Hines (Texas), Presiding Bishop

1966

‘Negro Churchmen’ Support Black Power

1966

ESCRU Brings Attention to Global Racism

1966

ESCRU Charges the Church with Heresy for Continued Racism

1968

Union of Black Clergy and Laity (UBCL) Forms

1969

ESCRU Leads Ash Wednesday Protest

1969

Special Convention Addresses Racism

1970

ESCRU Disbands

1970

First African American Bishop of the Episcopal Church Consecrated

1970

Charles Willie Elected as Vice President of the House of Deputies

1970

11,772 Clergy and 3,475,164 Baptized Members

1970

Ordination of Women to the Diaconate Approved

1970

Women Allowed to Serve as Delegates to General Convention

1974

John Maury Allin (Mississippi), Presiding Bishop

1974

Eleven Women Ordained Priest in Philadelphia

1976

General Convention Approves Ordination of Women in All Three Orders

1976

Dr. Charles Radford Lawrence, II Elected as President of the House of Deputies

1977

Bishop Paul Moore Ordains Homosexual to the Priesthood

1979

New Book of Common Prayer Book Approved

1980

13,089 Clergy and 3,037,420 Baptized Members

1986

Edmond Lee Browning (Hawaii), Presiding Bishop

1989

Barbara Harris is Consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts

1990

14,878 Clergy and 2,446,050 Baptized Members

1991

Pamela Chinnis Elected First Woman President of House of Deputies

1998

Frank Tracy Griswold III (Chicago), Presiding Bishop

2003

Gene Robinson Consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire

2006

Episcopal Church Elects First Woman Presiding Bishop