Ame Zion Church History (CONT)

THE GREAT EXPANSION                

                 During the last year of the Civil War, the bishops sent their youngest colleague, Bishop Joseph Jackson Clinton, to begin the work south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  In the movement on January 20, 1864 the Bishop Joseph Jamison Clinton placed the Reverend James Walker Hood (later bishop), New Bern, NC and was received by the official board of the Andrew’s Chapel. This was the first African American Conference held in that territory over which the Confederate flag had sailed. War was still raging, nevertheless, Bishop Clinton, with his missionaries, gathered around a stove on a cold winter day and laid the foundation for the structures, which towers up so grandly today in Zion throughout the south.  The first Session of the Alabama Conference convened in Mobile, April 3, 1867, Bishop J. J. Clinton presiding.  Later he sent from North Carolina Conference the Reverend John Jamison Moore (later bishop) to California, and he began the work for Zion in the western states.  The work flourished greatly under these local associates whom Bishop Clinton appointed and he was successful in establishing 13 conferences ranging from Virginia to California, and formed, ultimately, the greatest empire of the AME Zion Church. The first session of the California Conference convened in San Francisco, Wednesday, January 10, 1868.

 

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bishop Joseph Jackson Clinton                 Bishop James Walker Hood                  Bishop John Jamison Moore

 

 

 

EDUCATION AND LITERATURE

The first Discipline of the church was compiled in September 1820 by a committee selected by the first congregation, naming George Collins compiler.  The first effort of communication through a newspaper among the members was as early as 1860 when the Anglo-African was adopted; its editor was Robert Hamilton.  Hamilton was also chorister and member of Zion Church.

After this and other efforts failed, the plan for the present official organ was adopted by the church in 1876, and took on permanency in 1877.  This weekly publication known as The Star of Zion had as its first editor, The Reverend J. A. Tyler of New Bern, NC.

Bishop John J. Moore established the Book Concern in New York City, then pastor of Mother Zion was the first effort to publish literature for enlightenment and understanding of its members. Through many struggles this was later converted into the Publication House and moved to Charlotte, NC now the Corporate Headquarters of the Connection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A.M.E. Zion Corporate Headquarters

Charlotte, North Carolina

 

 

 

OTHER PERIODICALS of the denomination include the monthly publication: The Missionary Seer, founded by Bishop John Bryan Small; The Quarterly Review, founded in 1890 by Dr. George Wylie Clinton (later bishop); The Church School Herald, was jointly established by Drs. J. Francis Lee and James W. R Eichelberger. 

 

THE EDUCATIONAL ENDEAVORS

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has sponsored institutional education since its beginning.  The first little frame church built and dedicated to God in 1800 also had accommodation for a school.  The schools of New York City operated from the churches, and funds were granted to the city by the state legislature for such encouragement.  The other school for Africans which, received support from this fund, was the African Free School founded by the New York City Manumission Society.  According to the Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, Vol. III p. 564 July 10, 1804, there was evidently some provision in the law for refunds for schools operated in churches.  Early among the teachers were a few A.M.E. Zion Church leaders: James Varick, George Collins, and William Miller.  Miller also made use of home at 36 Mulberry Street for a classroom.

THERE WERE numerous attempts to start colleges from 1859, in New York, Middletown, PA, Fayetteville, NC and other places, both north and south.  The first successful effort was led by Bishop James W. Hood and his associates; B. S. Rives, William H. Thurber and Thomas H. Lomax at Concord, NC.

The Zion Wesley Institute was established in 1879 which eventuated into Livingstone College when it was later moved to Salisbury, NC in 1882, and Dr. Joseph Charles Price was elected first president.  Dr. Cicero R. Harris, (later bishop) was the first principal of the Zion Wesley movement when it began in Concord, and remained Teacher/Vice President of Livingstone College until he was elected bishop in 1888.    

OTHER educational institutions established afterwards include: Lomax-Hannon Junior College of Greenville, AL by Bishop Thomas H. Lomax; Clinton Junior College, Rock Hill, SC founded by Bishop George Wylie Clinton in memory of Bishop Isom C. Clinton; Dinwiddie Normal, Dinwiddie, VA; Walters-Southland Institute, Warren, AR; and Johnson High School, Batesville, MI: Hood Theological Seminary, 1904 Salisbury, NC; Hood-Speaks Theological Seminary, Nigeria; A.ME. Zion Community College University, Nigeria.

                 INDIVIDUAL GIANTS in the general educational enterprise include: Simon G. Atkins; James W. Eichelberger; William Johnson Trent; Samuel E. Duncan; Elizabeth Koontz; (more).

 

 

MISSIONARY ADANCEMENTS

                 The first venture in Foreign Missions was when Andrew Cartwright, a New England minister, went to Africa during the President Monroe movement of organizing Liberia out of former American slave population.  He started the church’s first work on foreign soil in Liberia.  Bishop John Bryan small went to West Africa in 1896, and established Zion’s work in Gold Coast (now Ghana) and Nigeria.

 

WHOMS (The Women’s Home & Overseas Missionary Society)

The Woman’s Home and Overseas (formally Foreign) Missionary Society was organized in 1896 at Montgomery, AL for the purpose of supporting work in overseas fields.  Prior to this, special endeavors were made by Eliza Ann Gardner who raised the funds in New England to send Andrew Cartwright to Africa, and Melvina Fletcher, a governess in the home of Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General of President Lincoln’s Cabinet, Washington, DC who raised the funds to send Bishop James J. Moore one of the first Zion preachers to the south. Since its beginnings Zion’s overseas work includes:

 

AFRICA (seventeen conferences): Angola. Central Africa, Cote d’Ivorie. Nigeria (nine conferences) South Africa, Ghana, Liberia (four conferences), Togo

ASIA (one conference) India

CARIBBEAN (five conferences) Jamaica, Bahamas, The Virgin Islands, Trinidad-Tobago, Barbados

SOUTH AMERICA (one conference) Guyana

EUROPE England (two conferences) London-Birmingham, and Manchester- Midland.

 

 

SOCIAL ACTION AND RECREATION

The Negro Church is the only social institution of the Negroes which started in the African forest and survived slavery; under the leadership of priest or medicine-man, afterward the Christian pastor, the Church preserved in itself the remnants of African tribal life and became after emancipation the center of Negro social life,  So that today the Negro population is virtually divided into church congregations [which form the majority of the units of race life] (W.E. Dubois, The Negro American Family, p. 130).

 

                 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church like all black American denominations, for the most part has had more of the dream of social welfare for its people than it has been able to implement.  Only 20 years younger than the American Republic, the A.M.E. Zion Church began with vision to provide centers for the sick, homes for the orphans, shelters for the aged, havens for the lonely, and refuge fro the needy, but slavery and economic suppression obstructed our efforts and retarded our goals.  Despite these circumstances, we have made some effective social progress.

                 Besides taking collections and making distribution among the poor and sick, there were early fragmental attempts to establish children’s homes.  These were followed by endeavors to provide home for the aged, while local churches sought to establish community welfare centers and programs of uplift.

                 The statement by the Committee on State of the Church sets the tone for Zion’s posture in regard social action on the part of the church with modifications appropriate for conditions confronting the community.

 

Intelligent concern for the extension of The Kingdom of Heaven on earth calls for attention to social agitation.  The Bible clearly teaches that rich and poor should dwell together in peace, for the Lord is the maker of them all.  The arraying of capital against labor and the division of society into conflicting classes are to be deplored, and, as far as possible, presented.  The Church should emphasize the duty of mutual, forbearance and charity.  It should be her aim to exalt the dignity of labor and to sanctify wealth and culture.  The ministers  of the Lord’s house ought to be of such a nature that lines of social distinction should disappear, and the wholesome truth be universally accepted that God is no respecter of persons (Committee on State of the Church, 1892).

 

RECREATION AND RETEATS

In seriously awakening to the need of wholesome recreation and amusement for children and youth, the church first coupled it with education and Sunday School training; naturally the indoor-outdoor games, then the encouragement of the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. programs.  Later according to the demands of the times, the church in the 1920’s utilized complete programs of training and recreation through its Christian Education Department and Varick Christian Endeavor Society (afterward the Hone and Church Division),  working with the  National boy Scout and Girl Scout organizations of America. 

In New York City, Mother Zion Church, under the leadership of the Reverend J. W. Brown, was the first in the connection to initiate a week-day community program.  More and more this became a part of urban church life.  Concern increased for summer outdoor programs, especially for children in crowed cities. 

 

THE RISE OF THE CAMP ASSEMBLY GROUNDS

Barber Memorial Camp, West Granville, MA. Established in 1934.

Camp Dorothy Walls, Black Mountain, NC, Founded, 1958.

Viola Booker Spottswood Memorial Camp, Grovesport, Ohio, Founded, 1962.

M. Ardelle Shaw Camp, Burlington, NY, Accepted in New York Conference, 1960.

 

 

                 While these assembly grounds initially place emphasis upon recreation for children and youth, in the last few decades the programs and facilities now provide for all ages and groups. Emphasis has expanded to include rest, learning, preparation through workshops, seminars, and retreats.  Community action program and outreach programs are included.

 

 CONCLUSION

Since its birth, the A.M.E Zion Church had been about the divine enterprise of liberating humankind from sin through the proclamation, by word and deed, of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  In addition to this liberating influence, the A.M.E. Zion Church provides the opportunity for all who hear its message to work toward the deliverance from the powers of past oppressive restrictions and to grow and fulfill divine intention and purpose for every life.

THE PRODUCT of which has been the growth of wise counselors, planners and industrious leaders in the onward march of humankind toward the City of God here on earth.  The A.M.E. Zion Church has produced a cadre of leaders, lay and clerical, whose will to struggle has been honed by the perennial fight for social, political, economic justice and moral rectitude.  This cadre includes: proclaimer  (male and female) of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; glorious artists, musicians, scientists, industrial leaders, bankers and commercial leaders, architects, engineers, persons of medicine, military and political leaders, legislators, mayors, ambassadors, governmental (federal, state, and local) department administrators, educators, home builders and owners, heads of families, mother and fathers, and beloved children.

 

To God Be The Glory

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Armstrong, James David, Meet James Varick, Charlotte, NC:  Charlotte’s AME Zion Historical Society, 1986.

Armstrong, James David, A Brief Historical Survey of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Charlotte, NC: A.M.E. Zion Historical Society, 2004.

Bradley, David Henry, Sr., A History of the A.M.E. Zion Church.  2 Vols. Nashville: The Parthenon

Press, 1956 & 1971.

Coker, Daniel, A Dialogue Between a Virginian and an African Minister.  Baltimore: Printed by

Benjamin Edes for Joseph James, 1910.

The Colonial Laws of New York (1664-1776), 2 Vols.  Albany: James B. Lyons, State Printer,

1894.

Conrad, Earl, Harriet Tubman.  Washington, D.C.: The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1943.

Cromwell, John W., The Negro in American History.  Washington, D.C.: The American Negro

Academy, 1914. Reprinted, New York & London: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1968.

Jones, Singleton T., Handbook of the Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

New York: Hunt and Eaton, 1888.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 Vols. New York: Harper & 

Brothers, 1937.

Loguen, J.W., The Rev. J.W. Loguen as a Slalve and as a Freeman. Syracuse: J.G.K. Truair & Co.,

Office of The Daily Journal, 1859.

Moore, John J. History of the A.M.E. Zion Church in America. York Pa.: Teachers Journal Office,

1884.

Ottley, Roi, New World A-Coming. Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company,

1943.

Ottley, and Weatherby, William J. (eds.),  The Negro in New York. Dobbs Ferry, New York:

Oceana Publication, Inc., 1967.

Ovington, Mary White, Half a Man. Reprint, New York: Hill and Wang, 1969.

Rush, Christopher, A Short Account of the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal (Zion) Church in America, Charlotte, NC: Reprinted, A.M.E. Zion Historical Society, 1996.

Walls, William Jacob, Joseph Charles Price, Educator and Race Leader. Boston: The Christopher

Publishing House, 1943.

Walls, William Jacob, The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: Reality of the Black Church.

Charlotte, North Carolina: A.M.E. Zion Publishing House, 1974.

Walls, William Jacob, The Romance of a College. New York: Vantage Press, 1963.

Wheeler, B.F., The Varick Family. Mobile, Alabama, 1906.

 

 

 

 

 

A.M.E. Zion Quarterly Review