1811–1893

Introduction

Born: Feb­ru­ary 24, 1811, Charles­ton, South Ca­ro­li­na.

Died: No­vem­ber 2, 1893.

Buried: Lau­rel Ce­me­te­ry (de­funct), Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land.

portrait

Biography

In 1852, Payne be­came the sixth bi­shop of the Af­ri­can Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal (AME) de­no­mi­na­tion.

In 1856, he joined the found­ing board of di­rect­ors of Wil­ber­force Uni­ver­si­ty in Ohio, the first his­to­ri­cal­ly black col­lege in which Af­ri­can Am­eri­cans were part of the found­ing. Af­ter the start of the Am­eri­can ci­vil war, Payne be­came its pre­si­dent, the first Af­ri­can-Am­eri­can col­lege pre­si­dent in the Unit­ed States.

After the war, Payne was in­stru­ment­al in or­gan­iz­ing and ex­pand­ing the AME church. With­in two de­cades, the church had grown to a quar­ter mil­lion mem­bers.

Sources

Lyrics