Places and Organizations
A private, historically black Seventh-day Adventist university founded in 1896 in Huntsville, Alabama and is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
What is Oakwood University?
A black SDA preacher who was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on July 24, 1930. Although Methodists at the time, shortly after this preacher's birth, his family began observing the seventh-day Sabbath in honor of a pledge his mother made to God while in a hospital bed suffering from a near-fatal illness. After reading The Great Controversy, he was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church on a Sabbath in 1940. In 196, Neal Wilson, president of the Columbia Union Conference, requested that this preacher be the field secretary for the union during a time of racial tension in the church. He later went on to become the field secretary for the whole church. In 1974, he became the first speaker-director of Breath of Life Ministry.
Who was C.D. Brooks?
The 62nd chaplain of the United States Senate. He was elected to this position on June 27, 2003, becoming the first African American and the first Seventh-day Adventist to hold this office. The Senate elected its first chaplain in 1789.
Who is Barry Black?
This well-known choir was originally organized in 1946 by the late Dr. Eva B. Dykes. Since its inception, the choir has traveled widely, touching the hearts of both young and old with their inspirational singing. They were named Choir of the World in 2017.
Who are the Aeolians?
A well-known SDA preacher and evangelist who said: "I have but one wish: To bring one more soul to Christ before I die."
Who was C.D. Brooks?
A private Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists and is the flagship university of the Seventh-day Adventist school system, the world's second largest Christian school system
What is Andrews University?
A black SDA author, civil rights advocate and evangelist of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He organized the N.A.A.C.P chapter for students on the campus of Oakwood College.
Who was E. E. Cleveland
Born in Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Medical School, this famous neurosurgeon served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1984 to 2013. His achievements include performing the only successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head; performing the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb; performing the first completely successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins; developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors; and revitalizing hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures. He currently serves as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development since 2017, under the Trump Administration.
Who is Ben Carson?
A bass-baritone singer and composer, has enjoyed a career as an internationally known soloist, ordained minister, radio personality, and award-winning religion teacher in the Seventh-day Adventist church. From his earliest years, religion and music have been focal points in his life. Invited by Calvin Rock, president of Oakwood College, and Nathaniel G. Higgs, new principal at Oakwood College Academy, he was asked to help in helping raise the spiritual tone at the school. He established a strong Bible program and with Higgs led out in a number of activities, including Agape suppers, student weeks of prayer, youth days, and community outreach activities such as suppers for senior citizens, which united and inspired the students to a renewed spiritual commitment. He received a Zapara Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1990 for his work as a teacher, counselor, and campus chaplain at the academy.
Who is T. Marshall Kelly?
An SDA woman standing next to Martin Luther King, Jr. during his "I Have a Dream" speech who said: "When Dr. King appeared to be nearing the end of the speech, I heard Mahalia Jackson say, 'Tell 'em about the dream, Martin.' And then Dr. King told us about that dream."
Who was Yolanda Clarke?
A church located in the heart of Harlem, NYC, which is a cultural landmark. It is also the birthplace of the Boys Choir of Harlem.
What is Ephesus SDA Church?
A black SDA woman who assisted her father Frederick Douglass in civil rights activism.
Who was Rosetta Douglass-Sprague?
A minister and black militant who's mother was befriended and witnessed to by her white Adventist neighbors in Lansing, Michigan. She became a Seventh-day Adventist around 1934, and raised her eight children according to the principles of the faith.
Who was Malcolm X?
Born January 7, 1955, this musician/minister is a vocal artist, and founder of the U.S. Dream Academy, Songs of Freedom Publishing Company, and Coral Records Recording Company. He features a booming bass voice, usually singing inspirational gospel music. He is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister. He has sung for both President Barack Obama and Oprah.
Who is Wintley Phipps?
This person reflecting on his interactions with SDAs when he was around 9 years old said: "The Adventists felt that we were living at the end of time, that the world soon was coming to an end. But they were the friendliest white people I had ever seen."
Who was Malcolm X?
An organization that was formed at Oakwood College and is comprised of its students with the goal “to eliminate hunger, poverty, and disease, and to improve education and food security among suffering people, both nationally and internationally, regardless of race, religion or nationality.” It has been awarded by several national governments for their humanitarian work (1978).
What is The National Association for the Prevention of Starvation (NAPS)?
The first black woman to complete requirements for a PhD. She also founded the Oakwood Aeolians.
Who was Eva B. Dykes?
This famous black SDA singer was raised a Baptist but he converted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in his early twenties through the preaching of E.C. Ward. He attended Oakwood, and at various points he has operated as an Adventist evangelist. He has maintained a membership with the church throughout his life, and has even distributed Steps to Christ and other SDA literature at his concerts. He gave his personal testimony when he appeared on 3ABN's Fall Camp Meeting in 2017.
Who is Little Richard?
An black ordained minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, this person is listed in "Who's Who Among Black Americans." He counts it a privilege to serve the Lord and gives praise to Him for the talents with which he has been entrusted. Along with concert and speaking appointments, he currently serves as Director of Evangelism for the Voice of Prophecy at the Adventist Media Center.
Who is Walter Arties?
He said "Often in the silent hours of the night I have seemed to hear again, the sweet song for the angels; and whenever my heart has felt sad and lonely, the things shown me by that angel have lifted me up above the trying scenes of earth."
Who was William Foy?
An organization within the SDA Church, which has a 5-letter acronym and envisions youth leaders who are equipped, local church youth ministries that are thriving and effective, communities that are impacted, and youth ministry resources that are relevant to an urban context. It is comprised of the nine black SDA Regional Conference Youth Directors.
What is BAYDA?
A seminary-trained black Millerite preacher who received 4 visions before Ellen G. White but did not accept God's call at the time. A teenage Ellen Gould Harmon (White) went to hear Foy relate his visions several times in her hometown of Portland, Maine, later stating that "it was remarkable testimonies he bore." After the Great Disappointment Foy spent four decades in active ministry.
Who was William Foy?
Member of the Little Rock Nine, this black SDA's mother converted to Adventism when he was 3 or 4, and he was baptized at 12 or 13. He had been an Adventist for about four years in 1957 when he and eight other black students were the first to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. He taught at Pacific Union College from 1975-1977, and was a psychologist at the St. Helena Hospital from 1977-1985. Disenchanted with the slow way the Adventist Church moved on racial issues, he and his wife left around 1994.
Who was Terrence Roberts?
A black SDA and prolific gospel music writer, singer, pianist, and arranger, is arguably one of the most influential persons to help gain acceptance for gospel music of the black experience in the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Who was Eleanor Wright?
A pregnant woman's response when asked to give up her seat to white passengers on a Greyhound bus in 1944 was: "Well, no."
Who was Irene Morgan?