Richard Allen (bishop)

The Right Reverend

Richard Allen
The Right Reverend; Richard Allen
Church	African Methodist Episcopal Church
Installed	April 10, 1816
Term ended	March 26, 1831
Predecessor	Formed denomination
Successor	Morris Brown
Orders
Ordination	1799; by Francis Asbury
Personal details
Born	February 14, 1760; Delaware Colony, British America
Died	March 26, 1831 (aged 71); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Buried	Mother Bethel AME Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Denomination	African Methodist Episcopal Church
Spouse	Flora, Sarah Bass
Children	Richard Jr., James, John, Peter, Sara, and Ann
Occupation	Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal church, minister, abolitionist, educator, writer, and one of America's most active and influential black leaders

Richard Allen (February 14, 1760 – March 26, 1831)^[1] was a minister, educator, writer, and one of the United States' most active and influential black leaders. In 1794, he founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent Black denomination in the United States. He opened his first AME church in 1794 in Philadelphia.^[2]

Elected the first bishop of the AME Church in 1816, Allen focused on organizing a denomination in which free black people could worship without racial oppression and enslaved people could find a measure of dignity. He worked to upgrade the social status of the black community, organizing Sabbath schools to teach literacy and promoting national organizations to develop political strategies.^[3] Allen said, "We will never separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population in this country; they are our brethren, and we feel there is more virtue in suffering privations with them than a fancied advantage for a season." The AME Church proliferated among the freed blacks in the Southern United States.^[4]

^ Bowden, Henry Warner (1993). Dictionary of American religious biography (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0313278253.
^ "Richard Allen, Bishop, AME's first leader". Archived from the original on December 12, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
^ Suzanne Niemeyer, editor, Research Guide to American Historical Biography: vol. IV (1990), pp. 1779–1782.
^ See "Richard Allen, Bishop, and AME Leader"

[1] Bowden, Henry Warner (1993). Dictionary of American religious biography (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0313278253.

[2] "Richard Allen, Bishop, AME's first leader". Archived from the original on December 12, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2016.

[3] Suzanne Niemeyer, editor, Research Guide to American Historical Biography: vol. IV (1990), pp. 1779–1782.

[4] See "Richard Allen, Bishop, and AME Leader"

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