Rev. Dr. Vernon Johns

Activist Ministers Empowered By Faith, Battled Racism in U.S.

            February is African American Heritage Month   Bishop Richard Allen, the founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was also a successful businessman, civic leader and social activist. Born a slave in 1760, Allen bought his freedom while in his 20s and was ordained as a minister in 1784. In 1787, Allen and fellow preacher, Absalom Jones, established the Free African Society to assist freed slaves and migrants. He also persuaded Black Philadelphians to serve as aid workers during a yellow fever epidemic in 1793 and prepared the Black community to