Payne Theological Seminary is an African Methodist Episcopal seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is the oldest free-standing African-American seminary in the United States. Incorporated in 1894 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church), it was named after Daniel Alexander Payne, the founder of Wilberforce University. Payne was Senior Bishop of the AME Church at the time of the Seminary’s founding and served as its first dean. He was the first African-American college president.
Payne Seminary traces its origins to 1844 when the Ohio Conference of the AME Church was authorized to build a seminary and manual training school. As a result Union Seminary opened in 1847, which led to the establishment of Wilberforce University in 1862 and Payne Seminary in 1891. [1]
The seminary’s path towards becoming a free-standing institution began in June 1890, when the board of trustees of Wilberforce University, on the motion of Bishop Abraham Grant, appointed Bishop Benjamin Arnett to chair a committee to “consider the propriety and feasibility of establishing a Theological Seminary at Wilberforce, to be part of, but not to be controlled by, a peculiar arrangement, so that it would be made more efficient than now.” The board's plan for a seminary was presented to the AME Church Council of Bishops and approved unanimously on February 28, 1891. [2]
Once the board of trustees' organizational plans were endorsed by Wilberforce's Financial Board, it was recommended the homestead of Rev. John G. and Fannie A. Mitchell be purchased for $8,500 as the seminary's future site. This plan was presented to Wilberforce's Board of Trustees and adopted with some modifications. Daniel Payne was selected as the Seminary's first dean. [3] The Seminary was officially dedicated on the Mitchell homestead on September 20, 1892.
On June 19, 1894, "Payne Theological Seminary of Wilberforce University" was incorporated by Alexander Wayman, Benjamin Arnett, James Handy, Benjamin Lee (Bishops of the AME Church), John Mitchell, James Shorter, and William Scarborough. The first Bachelor of Divinity graduates were: E. T. Demby, Charles Henry Johnson, and William Polk, Jr.; C. H. Colemen was awarded an English Theological certificate.
Reverend John G. Mitchell served as the seminary's second dean, from 1893 to November 1900. Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner, founder of The Christian Recorder newspaper, was dean from 1900 to 1902, but he was only on campus during commencement due to his duties as Bishop.
Discussing the necessity for Payne Seminary, the Catalogue of 1893–94 states:
The growing demands of the Church, the imperative requirements and demands of the age for trained and tried [persons] to be the moral and spiritual leaders, were weighed by the committee, who came to the unanimous conclusion that unless the Church put forth some organized effort to perpetuate an intelligent ministry, it would have to go to the rear of the procession of progress, and eventually lose its place as the leader of the advanced guard of race redeemers. [4]
Richard R. Wright, Jr. — who taught Hebrew and New Testament Greek at Payne — reflects on the Seminary's impact in his autobiography: "As I look back, it seems marvelous that Payne Seminary could have done so well with such poor equipment and poorly prepared students. The school has furnished several bishops of the Church, college presidents and deans, teachers and many pastors of large responsibility." [5]
As a part of its “peculiar arrangement” with Wilberforce University, Payne Seminary’s dean assumed institutional leadership.
During his tenure from 1902 to 1937, Dean Reverend George F. Woodson increased curriculum diversity. Dean Charles S. Spivey, Sr., serving from 1937 to 1944, emphasized the need for an educated clergy. Dougal Ormonde B. Walker became the interim-dean in 1944, and despite his short tenure, began Payne's development towards becoming an accredited institution.
Dean John H. Lewis held the office from 1944 to 1951, during which he continued the accreditation process that Walker initiated. Lewis emphasized the need to renovate the campus' buildings and grounds by appealing for the construction of a new administrative building.
During the 1951 to 1956 tenure of Dean Rembert E. Stokes, enrollment increased, the administration building was completed, and the stained glass windows of The Chapel of the Living Savior were installed. Stokes commissioned experts to produce stained-glass windows for the Chapel, which featured Biblical heroes (Jesus, Moses, Amos, St. Paul, and Martin Luther) and AME Church heroes (Wesley, Wilberforce, Allen, and Payne). The nine glass windows are acclaimed for their conceptual and artistic design. Stokes left Payne Seminary to become president of Wilberforce University in 1956. Payne’s chapel currently serves as the congregational home for Holy Trinity AME Church.
Dean Charles S. Spivey, Jr. served from 1957 to 1967, when he raised funds to furnish the academic building and the Chapel of the Living Savior. Alvia A. Shaw served as interim-Dean in 1968.
Wilberforce is a census-designated place (CDP) in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,410 at the 2020 census.
Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. It participates in the United Negro College Fund.
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Benjamin William Arnett was an American educator, minister, bishop and member of the Ohio House of Representatives.
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Reverdy Cassius Ransom was an American Christian socialist, civil rights activist, and leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained and served as the 48th A.M.E. bishop.
Lewis Woodson was an educator, minister, writer, and abolitionist. He was an early leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Woodson started and helped to build other institutions within the free African-American communities in Ohio and western Pennsylvania prior to the American Civil War.
Daniel Alexander Payne was an American bishop, educator, college administrator and author. A major shaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), Payne stressed education and preparation of ministers and introduced more order in the church, becoming its sixth bishop and serving for more than four decades (1852–1893) as well as becoming one of the founders of Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856. In 1863, the AME Church bought the college and chose Payne to lead it; he became the first African-American president of a college in the United States and served in that position until 1877.
Bishop John Richard Bryant a retired bishop who was the former Senior Bishop and Presiding Prelate of the Fourth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Hood Theological Seminary is a Christian seminary sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is a graduate and professional school sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and approved by the University Senate of The United Methodist Church. From its founding in 1879 until 2001, the seminary was part of Livingstone College; it is now independent. The seminary is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.
William B. Derrick was an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) bishop and missionary. He worked as a seaman early in his life and served in the Union Navy during the US Civil War. After the war, he joined the AME church and became involved in church leadership and missionary activities. He became a bishop of the church in 1896. He was also involved in Republican politics and civil rights.
Benjamin Tucker Tanner was an American clergyman and editor. He served as a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1886, and founded The Christian Recorder, an influential African American Methodist newspaper.
Benjamin Franklin Lee was a religious leader and educator in the United States. He was the president of Wilberforce University from 1876 to 1884. He was editor of the Christian Recorder from 1884 to 1892. He was then elected a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, serving from 1892 until his resignation in 1921, becoming senior bishop in the church in 1915.
John Mifflin Brown was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. He was a leader in the underground railroad. He helped open a number of churches and schools, including the Payne Institute which became Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina, and Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas. He was also an early principal of Union Seminary which became Wilberforce University.
Bishop Wesley John Gaines was an African-American church and community leader in Georgia. He was vice president of Payne Theological Seminary and co-founder of Morris Brown College.
Susie Isabel Lankford Shorter was an American educator, philanthropist, and writer.
Emma S. Connor Ransom was an American educator and clubwoman, active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the YWCA.
Yvonne Walker-Taylor was an American academic administrator who served as the 16th president of Wilberforce University. She was the first female African American college president in the United States.
