Richard Allen (reverend) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Richard Allen was a minister, educator and writer, and the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME), the first independent black denomination in the United States in 1816. He opened his first church in 1794 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. He was elected the first bishop of the AME Church. Allen had started as a Methodist preacher, but wanted to establish a black congregation independent of white control. The AME church is the oldest denomination among independent African-American churches.

Early life and freedom

As Allen and his brother grew older, they attended meetings of the local Methodist Society

Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

. Richard had taught himself to read and write. Converted early, he joined the Methodists at age 17. He began evangelizing

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

and attending services so regularly that he attracted criticism from local slave owners. Allen and his brother redoubled their efforts for Sturgis.

Reverend Freeborn Garrettson

Freeborn Garrettson

Freeborn Garrettson, an American clergyman, was born in Maryland in 1752. died in New York, September 26, 1827. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1775, travelled extensively in several states.-Role in American Methodism:Kenneth E...

, who had freed his own slaves in 1775, began to preach in Delaware. When Garrettson visited the Sturgis plantation to preach, "Allen's master was touched by this declaration... began to give consideration to the thought that holding slaves was sinful..." Sturgis soon was convinced that slavery was wrong, and offered his slaves an opportunity to buy their freedom

Manumission

Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...

. In 1780, Richard was able to get a slavery agreement from his master Stokeley.

Marriage and family

Allen married Sarah Bass. Born into slavery in 1764 in Virginia's Isle of Wight County, she was brought to Philadelphia at age 18. She was free by 1800, when they met. They were married within a year. They had six children: Richard, Jr.; James, John, Peter, Sarah and Ann.butt

In addition to the work of the family, Sara actively assisted Allen in the church and supported work to take care of runaway slaves, including feeding and clothing them. In 1827, seeing that the ministers coming to conference looked bedraggled, she organized Daughters of Conference as a women's organization to assist the church with their skills. Initially they mended garments and helped provide material support to the ministers. The women's organization continued after her death, taking on more social welfare issues for church members and the community.

Ministry

Allen was qualified as a preacher in 1784, at the first conference of the Methodist Church in North America, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was allowed to lead services at 5 a.m.

In 1786, Allen became a preacher at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church

St. George's United Methodist Church

St. George's United Methodist Church, located at the corner of 4th and New Streets, in Philadelphia, is the oldest Methodist church worship in continuous use in the United States....

, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

, but was restricted to early morning services. As he attracted more black congregants, the church vestry voted to build a segregated gallery for the use of blacks. Allen also regularly preached on the commons, slowly gaining a congregation of nearly 50, and supporting himself with a variety of odd jobs.

Allen and Absalom Jones

Absalom Jones

Absalom Jones was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman. After founding a black congregation in 1794, in 1804 he was the first African-American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States...

, also a Methodist preacher, resented the white congregants' forcing them to a segregated section for worship and prayer. They decided to leave St. George's to create independent worship for African Americans. This brought some opposition from the white church and the more established blacks of the community. In 1787, Allen and Jones led the black members out of St. George's Methodist Church.

They formed the Free African Society

Free African Society

The Free African Society was founded in Philadelphia in April 1787. The leaders were Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, free blacks whose goal was to create a non-denominational religious organization that served the spiritual, economic and social needs of Philadelphia's African-American community...

(FAS), a non-denominational mutual aid society, which assisted fugitive slaves and new migrants to the city. Allen, along with Absalom Jones, William Gray and William Wilcher, found an available lot on Sixth Street near Lombard. Allen negotiated a price and purchased this lot in 1787 to build a church, but it was years before they had a building. Now occupied by Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church

The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1794 by Richard Allen, an African-American Methodist minister. The church has been located at the corner of Sixth and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since that time, making it the oldest church property continuously...

, this is the oldest parcel of real estate in the United States owned continuously by black people.

Over time, most of the FAS members went with Absalom Jones to form a new congregation. They were drawn to the Episcopal Church

Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

and founded the African Church. This was accepted as a parish in the Episcopal Church and opened its doors on July 17, 1794 as the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Many blacks had been familiar with the Episcopal denomination, which shared common roots with Methodism in the Church of England. In 1795, Absalom Jones was ordained as a deacon, and in 1804 as a priest, becoming the first black ordained in the United States as an Episcopal priest.

Allen and others wanted to continue in the Methodist practice. Allen called their congregation the African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...

(AME). Using a converted blacksmith shop which they moved to the site on Sixth Street, they opened the doors of Bethel AME Church on July 29, 1794, and were affiliated with the larger Methodist Episcopal Church. In the beginning, they had to rely on visiting white ministers. In 1799, Allen became the first black Methodist minister, ordained by Bishop Francis Asbury

Francis Asbury

Bishop Francis Asbury was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now The United Methodist Church in the United States...

, in recognition of his leadership and preaching. He and the congregation still had to continue to negotiate white oversight and deal with white elders of the denomination.

In 1816, Allen united four African-American congregations of the Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Salem, New Jersey

Salem, New Jersey

Salem is a city in Salem County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the city population was 5,146. It is the county seat of Salem County, the most rural county in the state of New Jersey. The name Salem is related to the Hebrew word shalom, meaning "peace".The town and...

; Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

, and Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. Together they founded the independent denomination of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Church

(AME), the first fully independent black denomination in the United States. On April 10, 1816, Allen was elected its first bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest and largest formal institution in black America.

At first, Allen supported the "back to Africa

Black nationalism

Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...

" movement, and a plan for emigration to Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

. After Haiti achieved independence in 1804, its government had appealed to American blacks to immigrate there. In the face of strong opposition by Philadelphia’s black community, Allen dropped ideas of emigration. Blacks disagreed with the white-led American Colonization Society

American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society , founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen...

that organized the movement. They simply wanted rights in what they considered their own country. Allen, Jones, and James Forten

James Forten

James Forten was an African-American abolitionist and wealthy businessman. He worked at many jobs, including dentist, carpenter, pastor and minuteman....

, a successful businessman and sail maker, were acknowledged leaders of the free black community in Philadelphia.

In September 1830, black representatives from seven states convened in Philadelphia at the Bethlehem AME church for the first Negro Convention. A civic meeting, it was the first on such a scale of African-American leaders. Allen presided over the meeting, which addressed both regional and national topics. The convention came after the 1829 riots in Cincinnati

Cincinnati riots of 1829

The Cincinnati Riots of 1829 were triggered by competition between Irish immigrants and the African American community for employment opportunities in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA....

when blacks were attacked, after which 1200 blacks left the city to go to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The convention focused on aid to such settlements in Canada, among other issues. The 1830 meeting was the beginning of an organizational effort known as the Negro Convention Movement, part of 19th century institution building.

Death

From 1797 to his death at home on March 26, 1831, Allen operated a station on the Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

for escaping slaves. This work was continued by Mother Bethel Church until the Emancipation

Emancipation

Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

. During and after the Civil War, the congregation aided blacks migrating to Philadelphia to live, helping them learn its urban ways.

In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante

Molefi Kete Asante

Molefi Kete Asante is an African-American scholar, historian, and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African American studies, African Studies and Communication Studies...

named Richard Allen as one of the 100 Greatest African Americans

100 Greatest African Americans

100 Greatest African Americans is a biographical dictionary of the one hundred historically greatest African Americans , as assessed by Molefi Kete Asante in 2002.-Criteria:...

.

Allen is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA)

Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)

The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term "saint" is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Those in the Anglo-Catholic tradition may...

on March 26.

Bishop Richard Allen was honored in June 2010 with the naming of a park in Radnor Township. Radnor is situated approximately 15 miles west of Philadelphia.

The Richard Allen homes were named after Richard Allen, and are the home of the Fictional Fat Albert Crew. Fat Albert's creator Bill Cosby was raised in the Richard Allen homes Public Housing.

His body is interred at the lower level of the church in a tomb.

Inspiration Left Behind

After 170 years, A school was formed from the inspiration of Richard Allen.
It all began with an idea at the Baltimore Avenue Redevelopment Corporation. Dr. Benjamin Smallwood and Rev. Joseph D. Patterson observed the SW Philadelphia area and realized that our children needed an alternative for quality education. They pulled a team together, now known as the Founders (refer to p.1-2) and the concept of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School (RAPCS) was formed. Realizing that children are most at risk during their formative years it was decided that RAPCS would be a middle school. This group initially met to develop the school's mission and design the school.

After receiving its charter, RAPCS opened in September 2001 with 180 students at 2251 N. 54th Street. This was only temporary housing and plans were in development for the building of a permanent site. Due to significant growth in its student population (approx. 370 students in year four) RAPCS outgrew the trailers. RAPCS then moved from the trailers to a building at 5151 Warren Street. All the while our students continued to thrive and made AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) during the 2003-2004 & 2004-2005 academic school years.

During this time the administration and board of RAPCS diligently worked at finding a new permanent home. During the 2004/2005 school year several options were identified and in 2005/2006 the decision was made to acquire and renovate the former Angelica laundry Plant at 2601 S. 58th Street.

External links

Richard Allen & African-American Identity, Early America
"Richard Allen", Africans in America, PBS.org
"The African Methodist Episcopalians", University of Virginia
Bishop Richard Allen
Rev. Richard Allen
The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen, Philadelphia: Martin & Boden, Printers, 1833, Documents of the South, University of North Carolina