Early Black Bishps in America

Between 1760 and 1920, while White America systematically denied Black people basic human rights and ecclesiastical authority, nine visionary leaders achieved the impossible: they founded independent denominations, built lasting institutions, and exercised episcopal authority that white supremacy insisted they could never possess. In this groundbreaking historical work, Bishop Andy C. Lewter—both Harvard-trained scholar and practicing bishop since 1993—chronicles the extraordinary journeys of Richard Allen, James Varick, William Henry Miles, James Augustine Healy, Elias Camp Morris, Charles Harrison Mason, Charles Price Jones, William J. Seymour, and William E. Fuller Sr., whose courage and sacrifice created the foundations of Black Christianity in America.