The Jefferson County Sunday School Association was a church-based organization founded in 1925 in Louisville, Kentucky. It played a pivotal role in local civil rights activities and was part of the grassroots effort for anti-discrimination campaigns with an emphasis on employment opportunities for African-Americans. [1]
The JCSSA began as a religious education group. It wasn't until the 1930s that the organization began to shift its focus to job discrimination of African-Americans. This began with a particular instance when a Louisville phone company refused to hire African-Americans as employees, so Frank Stanley Sr. — editor and publisher of the Louisville Defender — urged readers to pay their phone bills with pennies. After this incident, the JCSSA initiated a drive to get the Louisville Transit Company to hire black drivers. [2]
The JCSSA also held rallies consisting of various African-American religious groups and partnered with other organizations helping African-Americans, such as Operation Breadbasket. In 1939, the JCSSA health committee launched a campaign to create training facilities for nurses and doctors, in order to improve the health of African-Americans. Unfortunately, the campaign was soon abandoned because of disagreements concerning the leadership of the committee. [3]
Interracial cooperation in Louisville during the post-war civil rights movement took the form of leadership by three overlapping coalitions: left-wing and labor unions, secular and government-sponsored agencies, and church youth groups. Various groups within each would gain more influence at certain periods. A few, including the JCSSA, were seen as being led by charismatic individuals who brought people out for protest campaigns. [4]
Reverend Daniel J. Hughlett was one of the prominent leaders of the JCSSA. He was appointed to lead the A.M.E. Zion Church located at 22nd and Chestnut streets in Louisville in 1930. Hughlett was a secretary under President Jackson, before turning the association into one that addresses race relations under his leadership. [5] During Hughlett's thirty-year leadership as a pastor, the church became a symbol of hope in the community. Youth programs flourished under Rev. Hughlett's ministry, along with serving the economic, spiritual, and physical needs of the surrounding community. [6]
In addition, during Hughlett's pastorship, the church started a Well Baby Clinic and a Credit Union as part of the ministry. This allowed the church to grow in congregation and building size. A basement annex was added for spiritual and educational activities, as well as for the use of meetings and special events by various community groups. [7]
Many churches, along with the A.M.E. Zion Church, would advertise their services in the Louisville Leader and pastors would even write articles about their events. Churches would also come together and have meetings or conventions, especially among the pastors and their wives. Oftentimes, these women served as the backbone of the different church ministries, serving in smaller committees that planned various church-sponsored events.
Conventions held at different churches mainly served as a hub for spreading new ideas about ways to improve ministries and serve the community. In fact, activities and programs of churches acted as uniting mechanisms in the black community. Churches also served as a school for literacy and an instrument for social change. Members would not only worship together, but also gather together for protests. [8]
An example would include a 1942 conference directed by Rev. Hughlett at the A.M.E. Zion Church, bringing together the directors of the Religious Education of the Madisonville District. He "explained the new religious education set up, as outlined in the 1941 discipline, and gave suggestions for making the church program serve the needs of the people in a larger way." [9] Rev. Hughlett also participated in a debate at Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church titled, "which hinders the Negro most, his color or his conduct." [10]
Despite the majority of congregations and Sunday schools being composed mostly of women, men often held administrative positions in the church. Women were not left out of the association though. They often took interest in projects working to improve the church and the community. [11] In addition, the pastors' wives sometimes formed their own committees to plan for church events. Many African-American women also served as Sunday school teachers in their churches, often educating adults and children how to read and write along with Biblical lessons. [12] Sunday schools emerged for the sole purpose of increasing literacy in the black community. [13]
Within the church, women also took charge of fundraising to support many African-American institutions in and outside of the church, such as businesses, newspapers, and educational institutions. Though there weren't many roles for women in the church, the positions they were allowed to take on provided them with organizational and speaking skills necessary in the development of various female associations and groups such as the NAACP. In fact, women often used churches as a launching point for activism because of the networks and support from the church family. [14] In addition, older active women in the church were seen as "community mothers" who would care for people in the African-American community and other church members. These women were seen as a symbol of strength among women, though they were still under the authority of the men who filled the higher religious positions in the church. [15]
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people, AME welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.
The National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc., more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention of America or sometimes the Boyd Convention, is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is a predominantly African American Baptist denomination, and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The National Baptist Convention of America has members in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Africa. The current president of the National Baptist Convention of America is Dr. Samuel C. Tolbert Jr. of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or the AME Zion Church (AMEZ) is a historically African-American Christian denomination based in the United States. It was officially formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of years before then. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology.
The black church is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that predominantly minister to, and are also led by African Americans, as well as these churches' collective traditions and members. The term "black church" may also refer to individual congregations, including in traditionally white-led denominations.
Simmons College of Kentucky is a private, historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky. Founded in 1879, it is the nation's 107th HBCU and is accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education.
The Allen Temple AME Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, US, is the mother church of the Third Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest operating black church in Cincinnati and the largest church of the Third Episcopal District of the AME Church.
Religion of black Americans refers to the religious and spiritual practices of African Americans. Historians generally agree that the religious life of black Americans "forms the foundation of their community life". Before 1775 there was scattered evidence of organized religion among black people in the Thirteen Colonies. The Methodist and Baptist churches became much more active in the 1780s. Their growth was quite rapid for the next 150 years, until their membership included the majority of black Americans.
Bishop Alexander Walters was an American clergyman and noted civil rights leader. Born a slave in Bardstown, Kentucky, just before the Civil War, he rose to become a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at the age of 33, then president of the National Afro-American Council, the nation's largest civil rights organization, at the age of 40, serving in that post for most of the next decade.
NAACP in Kentucky is very active with branches all over the state, largest being in Louisville and Lexington. The Kentucky State Conference of NAACP continues today to fight against injustices and for the equality of all people.
Elizabeth Beatrice Cooke Fouse was a woman from Kentucky, dedicated to gaining equality for African American women on both local and national levels. She founded as well as became the head of many organizations, with the ultimate goal of ending discrimination. Her Christian faith was critical to her activities in social and church-related clubs.
The following is a timeline of the history of Lexington, Kentucky, United States.
Julia A. J. Foote was ordained as the first woman deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the second to be ordained as an elder. She was a leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout pulpits of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion connexion.
Mary Virginia Cook Parrish taught, wrote and spoke on many issues such as women's suffrage, equal rights in the areas of employment and education, social and political reform, and the importance of religion and a Christian education. She was at the founding session of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 at the 19th Street Baptist Church in Washington D.C. She was an early proponent of Black Baptist feminism and founder of the National Baptist Women's Convention in 1900.
Jeffery Tribble is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a professor of ministry with research interests in Practical Theology, Congregational Studies and Leadership, Ethnography, Evangelism and Church Planting, Black Church Studies, and Urban Church Ministry. Academics and professionals in these fields consider him a renowned thought leader. Tribble's experience in pastoral ministry allows for his work to bridge the gap between academic research and practical church leadership.
Marshall W. Taylor was a Methodist Episcopal minister and journalist in Kentucky. He is noted for his book, Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies published in 1882. He was also the first black editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a position he held from 1884 until his death in 1887.
Charles Henry Parrish was a minister and educator in Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. He was the pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Louisville from 1886 until his death in 1931. He was a professor and officer at Simmons College, and then served as the president of the Eckstein Institute from 1890 to 1912 and then of Simmons College from 1918 to 1931. His wife, Mary Virginia Cook Parrish and son, Charles H. Parrish Jr., were also noted educators.
Martha Jayne Keys was an American Christian minister. She was the first woman to be ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was president of the West Kentucky conference branch for five years. She was also the author of a 1933 gospel drama, The Comforter.
Rev. Chasteen C. Stumm (1848–1895) was an American minister, teacher, journalist, editor, and newspaper publisher. He was from Kentucky, and also lived in Tennessee, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Annie Walker Blackwell was an American church worker, suffragist, and writer. The Annie Walker Blackwell School for Women and Girls in Liberia was named in her memory.
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