blacksdahistory
Articles on Black Adventist History
Benjamin Baker
30 Awesome Things Black Adventists Did (Adventist Today)
100 Famous African Americans and Seventh-day Adventists (Spectrum)
A Black Adventist in the Supreme Court—Facing Racial Injustice on Public Transport, Spectrum
Alyne Dumas Lee (blackpast.org)
Beaten in the Year of the Advent (Spectrum)
Charles Decatur Brooks (blackpast.org)
Charles Decatur Brooks (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Chessie Walker Harris (Encyclopedia of Alabama)
Death by Wasting Away: The Life, Last Days, and Legacy of Lucy Byard (Journal of Black Studies)
Ellen White and Social Justice Activism, Part 1
Ellen White and Social Justice Activism, Part 2
Ellen White on Reparations (Spectrum)
Eri L. Barr (blackpast.org)
Eri L. Barr (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Hidden Figures, Part 1: Mary E. Britton (Spectrum)
Hidden Figures, Part 2: Irene Morgan (Spectrum)
Hidden Figures, Part 3: Ruth Temple (Spectrum)
"I have fought a good fight": William Ellis Foy as a Millerite (College and University Dialogue)
Lessons from the Night the Stars Fell 181 Years Ago (Adventist Review)
Life Sketch of C.D. Brooks (Spectrum)
Martin Luther King's Advice to a Saturday-Sunday Couple (Adventist Today)
Mary E. Britton (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Mary Inez Booth (Encyclopedia of Alabama)
Mary Inez Lang Booth (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
More People's History of Black Adventism (Adventist Today)
Nipsey Hussle and Adventism (Adventist Today)
Our Firm Foundation and Black People (Spectrum)
Passing It On: A Look at the Ministry of Henry Wright (Columbia Union Visitor)
Seventh-day Adventists in Alabama (Encyclopedia of Alabama)
The Clearest Mirror: Reflections on Black Adventist History (Spectrum)
The George Brown Story and Adventist Race Relations (Spectrum)
The Lucille Byard Affair (Adventist Review)
The Lucy Byard Story (Columbia Union Visitor)
The Movement Begins Moving (Adventist World)
The Night the Stars Fell (Adventist Review)
The Rescuer (College and University Dialogue)
The Woman Who Wouldn't Be Quiet (Adventist Review)
"They lived near the bridge where we went over:" Ellen White and Blacks, Part 1 (Spectrum)
"Let the Slave Reply:" Ellen White and Blacks, Part 2 (Spectrum)
"To Be Depended Upon:" Ellen White and Blacks, Part 3 (Spectrum)
Who's That Adventist Woman Beside Martin Luther King Jr? (Adventist Review)
William Ellis Foy (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Kevin M. Burton
The Adventist Truth and Sojourner's Legacy (Lake Union Herald)
Born a Slave, Died a Freeman (Adventist Review)
The Purge of the Battle Creek Church on April 6, 1870 (Journal of Adventist Theological Studies)
Joseph Bates and Adventism's Radical Roots (Adventist Review)
Seventh-day Adventist Pioneers and Their Protest Against Systemic Racism (Adventist Review)
Bill Knott
Tell 'Em About the Dream (Adventist Review)
Writing Against Wrongs (Adventist Review)
Samuel London
Addison Vastapha Pinkney (ESDA)
Donald Barnett Simons (ESDA)
Elizabeth Trula Wade (ESDA)
Emmanuel Saunders (ESDA)
Eric Calvin Ward (ESDA)
Eugenia Isabella Cunningham (ESDA)
Harold Douglas Singleton, Sr. (ESDA)
Harvey Ward Kibble, Sr. (ESDA)
James Elmore Dykes (ESDA)
James Irving Beardsley (ESDA)
James Lewis Moran (ESDA)
John Joseph Beale (ESDA)
Lawrence Jacobs, Sr. (ESDA)
Lillie Henrietta Emanuel (ESDA)
Lulu Edna Padgett-Roache (ESDA)
Minneola Lanora Dabney-Dixon (ESDA)
Natelkka Izetta Edith Burrell (ESDA)
Oakwood University (ESDA)
Richard Steven Norman, Jr. (ESDA)
Robert Harris Carter (ESDA)
Roy Adell Warren, Sr. (ESDA)
Roy Enford Malcolm (ESDA)
Samuel Acton Rashford (ESDA)
Warren St. Clair Banfield (ESDA)
Wilfred Bernard Benn (ESDA)
Douglas Morgan
1919 and the Rise of Black Adventism (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 1 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 2 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 3 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 4 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 5 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 6 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 7 (Spectrum)
Adventism and America's Original Sin, Part 8 (Spectrum)
Adventist History Spotlight: Anna Knight and the Free State of Jones (Spectrum)
Allegheny Conference (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Alma J. Scott (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Builders of Black Adventism (Spectrum)
Edward Earl Cleveland (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
God's Hand in Emancipation (Spectrum)
Jubilee Hope - Ellen White and the Politics of Racial Justice, Part 1 (Spectrum)
Sinful Sentiments and Republican Purity: Ellen White and the Politics of Racial Justice, Part 2 (Spectrum)
Sellout to Segregation? Ellen White and the Politics of Racial Justice, Part 3 (Spectrum)
Peter Gustavas Rodgers (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
James R. Nix
Adventism's First Black Family (Adventist Review) with Lawrence W. Onsager
Ellen White's Racial Background (Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium)
Trevor O'Reggio
Charles Marshall Kinny (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Exploring the Factors that shaped Early Adventist Mission to Jamaica (Journal of Adventist Theological Society)
Slavery, Prophecy, and the American Nation as seen by the Adventist Pioneers, 1854-1865 (Journal of Adventist Theological Society)
The Father of Black Adventism: Charles M. Kinny (Journal of Adventist Theological Society)
DeWitt S. Williams
Charles Bowles (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Eleanor Wright: Songs in the Night (Spectrum)
Eva Beatrice Dykes (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Eva Beatrice Dykes: First African American Woman to Complete PhD Requirements (Spectrum)
Florence Mabel Branch Webb (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists
Geneva Bryan (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Harold Douglas Singleton (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
James Elisha Patterson (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Jessie Dorsey Green (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Lambert Wellington Browne (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Little Richard and His Time at Oakwood College (Spectrum)
Ruth Janetta Temple (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
The Black "Blue Zone" (Adventist Review)
Thomas and Henrietta Branch (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Thomas Milton Rowe (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
William Hawkins Green (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
William Henry Sebastian (Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists)
Timeline of Black Adventist History
1865-1899
Compiled by Benjamin Baker
1865
May 17: 3rd General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
May 23: General Conference Session resolves: “That a field is now opened in the South for labor among the colored people and should be entered upon according to our ability.”
December 25: Ellen White receives vision to establish a health institution.
Churches: 140
T&O: $12,000
End Membership: 4,000
1866
May 16-17: 4th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
June 12: The Visions—Objections Answered by Uriah Smith is published.
September 5: Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan, opens for patients.
Churches: 150
End Membership: 4,250
1867
May 14-May 19: 5th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 160
End Membership: 4,320
1868
May 12-May 18: 6th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
December 25: John West, believed to be the second black Seventh-day Adventist minister, dies in Peterboro, New York.
Churches: 159
Beginning Membership: 4,320
End Membership: 4,475
1869
May 18-24: 7th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 167
Beginning Membership: 4,475
End Membership: 4,900
1870
March 15-20: 8th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
December 20: William Hawkins Green is born in Lewisburg, North Carolina.
Churches: 179
T&O: $25,375
T&O (1866-1870): $103,157
Beginning Membership: 4,900
End Membership: 5,440
1871
February 7-February 12: 9th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
May 2: Elbert B. Lane, the first Adventist minister in the South, reports in the Review and Herald of holding meetings in a depot in Edgefield Junction, Tennessee, with "white people occupying one room, and the Colored the other." Black Baptist minister Harry Lowe embraces Adventism at the meetings.
December 29, 1871-January 3, 1872: 10th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 185
Beginning Membership: 5,440
End Membership: 4,550
1872
December 29, 1872-January 3, 1873: 10th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 204
Beginning Membership: 4,550
End Membership: 4,901
1873
March 11-March 14: 11th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
November 14-November 16: 12th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 239
Beginning Membership: 4,901
End Membership: 5,875
1874
March 4: Anna Knight is born to Newton and Georgeanne Knight in Jones County, Mississippi.
June 4: First issue of Signs of the Times, edited by James White, is published in Oakland, California.
August 10-August 15: 13th General Conference Session is held in Battle Creek, Michigan.
1875
April 1: Silas Osborn reports in the Review and Herald of four black converts from meetings he held in Powder Mills, Kentucky.
August 15-August 18: 14th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 339
T&O: $33,156
T&O (71-75): $147,690
Beginning Membership: N/A
End Membership: 8,042
1876
March 31-April 6: 1st Special General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
June 10: Lottie Cornella Isbell Blake is born.
September 19-September 24: 15th General Conference Session, Lansing, Michigan.
November 12 and 13: 2nd Special General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 398
Beginning Membership: 8,042
End Membership: 10,044
1877
February 22: A report appears in the Review and Herald from Mrs. H.M. Van Slyke about a "colored school" in Ray County, Missouri, in which she taught black orphans to read the Bible.
May 24: William F. Minisee dies in Solon, Kent County, Michigan.
March 7: James Kemuel Humphrey is born.
September 20-September 28: 16th General Conference Session, Lansing, Michigan.
September 22: Lucille Lewis (later Byard) is born.
Churches: 478
Beginning Membership: 10,044
End Membership: 11,608
1878
January 3: C.O. Taylor reports in the Review and Herald that lawyer and planter W.F. Killen of Houston County, Georgia, is converted to the Adventist faith, along with his family. Killen states that "I have no trouble in getting my laborers (colored people) to keep it [the Sabbath]."
March 1-March 4: 3rd Special General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
March 14: C.O. Taylor reports in the Review and Herald that a black minister in Worth County, Georgia, is keeping the Sabbath.
August: Charles Kinny/Kinney is baptized in Reno, Nevada, during a tent meeting conducted by J.N. Loughborough and guest speaker Ellen White.
October 4-October 16: 17th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 549
Beginning Membership: 11,608
End Membership: 13,077
1879
July 6: James Gershom (J.G.) Dasent is born.
November 7-December 1: 18th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 599
Beginning Membership: 13,077
End Membership: 14,141