Christian 1
Born a slave in Virginia around 1750, this man was converted at 23 and freed by his master. He organized the oldest Black church in North America in Savannah, Georgia in 1773, then fled to Jamaica where he spent his life evangelizing enslaved Africans — a full decade before William Carey went to India — earning him the title of the world's first Baptist missionary.
Who is George Liele?
Born a slave in 1746, this man used pennies to buy a spelling book and then a Bible, teaching himself to read by candlelight. He purchased his wife's freedom before his own so their children would be born free. In 1787, he and Richard Allen were physically pulled off their knees during prayer at a white church — and walked out. He later became the first Black priest ordained in the Episcopal Church.
Who is Absalom Jones?
Born into slavery in Maryland around 1818, this man was taught to read illegally by his master's wife. Converted at 13, he escaped slavery at 20, became a licensed preacher in the AME Zion Church, and became America's most famous abolitionist. He advised President Lincoln and wrote: 'I love the pure, peaceable Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding Christianity of this land.'
Who is Frederick Douglass?
Born into slavery in Alabama in 1845, this self-educated Baptist pastor championed literacy because he believed formerly enslaved people needed to read the Bible for themselves — so no one could twist Scripture to control them. He helped raise Black literacy in the South from 10% to nearly 43%, and pastored the same Montgomery, Alabama church where MLK would later serve.
Who is Charles Octavius Boothe?
Born a slave in Philadelphia in 1760, this man bought his freedom for $2,000 and joined a white Methodist church. When white elders physically pulled Black worshippers off their knees during prayer, he walked out — and built the first independent Black denomination in American history in 1794.
Who is Richard Allen?
Born into slavery around 1750, this man never learned to read or write. He traveled with Methodist bishop Francis Asbury as his driver, but when people heard him preach, everything changed. Dr. Benjamin Rush called him 'the greatest orator in America.' He became the first Black preacher on record to preach to white audiences.
Who is Harry Hosier?
Born into a family of Baptist preachers in Atlanta, this man entered college at 15 and was ordained at 18. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott at 26, delivered the 'I Have a Dream' speech at 34, won the Nobel Peace Prize at 35, and was assassinated at 39. The night before his death he preached: 'I've been to the mountaintop... I've seen the Promised Land.'
Who is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
Born into slavery in Virginia in 1812, this man worked in a tobacco factory and could barely read. At 27 he had a dramatic conversion and said the tobacco leaves seemed to shine with heavenly light. After the Civil War, he founded a church with 9 members that grew to over 2,000. He became famous for a single sermon he preached over 250 times, drawing enormous crowds.
Who is John Jasper?
Born into slavery in 1737, this man was converted by George Liele and began preaching to enslaved people in Georgia. He was savagely beaten and imprisoned multiple times but reportedly said he would gladly die for Christ. His congregation grew to 700, and his church — the oldest existing Black church in the U.S. — still stands in Savannah today.
Who is Andrew Bryan?
Born in Louisiana in 1870, this son of formerly enslaved parents traveled to Houston to study theology but had to listen through a cracked door because of Jim Crow. In 1906, he was locked out of a church after one sermon. He started prayer meetings in a home instead — and what followed became one of the most significant revivals in history, birthing a movement now over 600 million strong.
Who is William J. Seymour?
Raised by his formerly enslaved grandmother in Florida, this theologian met Gandhi in the 1930s, co-founded the first integrated church in America in 1944, and became the first Black dean at a predominantly white university. His book 'Jesus and the Disinherited' became the spiritual handbook of the Civil Rights Movement, and the young man he mentored at Boston University was Martin Luther King Jr.
Who is Howard Thurman?
Named Shadrach Meshach straight from the Book of Daniel, this Baptist pastor served Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego for over 40 years. He became legendary for a six-and-a-half-minute sermon clip describing the majesty of Jesus that has been viewed millions of times — widely considered one of the greatest sermon moments in American history.
Who is Dr. S.M. Lockridge?
Abandoned at five months old, sold into indentured servitude for 21 years, and largely self-educated through the Bible, this man fought in the American Revolution and in 1794 became the first Black man to pastor a white congregation in America — serving in Rutland, Vermont for 30 years.
Who is Lemuel Haynes?
Born into slavery in Missouri in 1854, this man's mother escaped across the Mississippi under gunfire during the Civil War. He felt called to the priesthood, but every American seminary rejected him because of his race. So he went to Rome, was ordained in 1886, and returned to serve Black Catholics in Chicago. In 2019, Pope Francis confirmed his 'heroic virtue,' putting him on the path to sainthood.
Who is Augustus Tolton?
This South African Anglican bishop couldn't afford medical school, became a teacher, then left in protest when apartheid degraded Black education. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for opposing apartheid. After it fell, he chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, choosing confession and forgiveness over revenge.
Who is Archbishop Desmond Tutu?
This pastor grew up in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. He took over a church with 65 members and grew it to over 7,000. When Hurricane Katrina destroyed his church, he rebuilt. Then in 2012, a denomination that was literally founded in 1845 to defend slavery elected him as its first African American president.
Who is Fred Luter Jr.?
Born around 293 AD in Alexandria, Egypt, this man became bishop at age 30 and championed the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea. His enemies mocked him as the 'Black Dwarf,' and he was exiled five times by four Roman emperors — but never backed down from defending the full divinity of Jesus Christ.
Who is Athanasius of Alexandria?
Born a slave in Virginia around 1780, this man worked in a tobacco warehouse, heard the Gospel, and learned to read using the Bible. He purchased his freedom and was earning $800 a year — a fortune — but gave it all up in 1821 to sail to Liberia as the first Black American Baptist missionary to Africa.
Who is Lott Carey?
The son of a Baptist minister and a church organist from Georgia, this man became a blues musician in Chicago before God pulled him back. In 1932, his wife died during childbirth and their newborn son died the next day. Out of that grief, he wrote 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' and went on to compose over 1,000 gospel songs, earning the title 'Father of Black Gospel Music.'
Who is Thomas A. Dorsey?
Born free in New York City in 1819, this man was rejected from seminary because of his race, so he earned a degree from Cambridge University in England. He spent nearly 20 years as a missionary in Liberia, founded Liberia College, and became one of the first Black thinkers to articulate a theology of Black identity and divine purpose. His writings deeply influenced W.E.B. Du Bois.
Who is Alexander Crummell?