Time Line of African-American Mennonites

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1688- Mennonites and Quakers denounce the treatment of slaves by slaveowners.

1886 - First mission among African-American mining community of Elk Park, in the in Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina by Mennonite Brethren from Kansas and South Dakota.

1893 - First Mennonite urban home mission is started in Chicago, Illinois.

1894 - The Lancaster Sunday School Mission was established by the Lancaster Conference to witness to African-Amercans.

1897 - April 21: First known African-American members, Robert, Mary Elizabeth, and Cloyd Carter joined Lauver Mennonite Church, Cocolamus, PA. (Juniata District of the Lancaster Conference)

- July: Mennonite Sunday School Mission, in Paradise, PA, invited African-American Presbyterian minister M. H. Hagler to speak on the impoverished condition of the Welsh Mountain area. Pastor Hagler's message inspired the founding of the Welsh Mountain Industrial Mission the following year.

1898 - The Welsh Mountain Industrial Mission (Pennslyvania) was established to meet the economic and spiritual needs of local African-Americans.

1925 - Peter Siemens went to North Carolina to plant Mennonite Brethren churches leading to the North Carolina District of the Mennonite Brethren Church.

1933 - An African-American is planted in Lancaster, Pennslyvania under the name of the Lancaster Mission for the Colored.

1935 - Eastern Mennonite College's Young People's Christian Association founded the Broad Street Mennonite Church as a missions project.

- July 1: The Mennonite Mission for Colored (later Diamond St. Mennonite Church) opened in Philadelphia with help from Norris Square Mennonite Church.

1936 - Rowena Lark assisted with summer Bible school in Harrisonburg, Virginia, beginning the Larks broader church ministry.

1944 - The Larks were superintendents with Bible school in Chicago, Illinois.

1946 - October 6: James H. Lark became the first ordained African-American Mennonite minister, Bethel Mennonite Church, Chicago, Illinois.

1949 - General Conference Mennonite Church gave support to the East Harlem Protestant Parish in an effort to support interdennominational mission groups for African-Americans.

1954 - September 26: James Lark becomes bishop of Bethel Mennonite Church.

1955 - "The Way of Christian Love in Race Relations" is adopted by the Mennonite Church.

1960 - Martin Luther King Jr. visited Goshen College as part of relations between Mennonite leaders and King.

1961 - MCC started a Voluntary Service unit in Atlanta, Georgia to work toward racial reconciliation.

1968 - A gathering of white pastors challenge mission boards to become more active in urban ministry.

1969 - After the "Black manifesto", the Mennonite Church formed the Compassion Fund to raise Mennonite giving to minority communities and the Minority Ministries Education Fund to train minority leaders.

1970 - Linford Hershey, former pastor of 10th Street Mennonite in Wichita, becomesdirector of the Minority Ministries council.

1973 - The first cross-culutural youth convention was held at Epworth Forest in Indiana.

1974 - The Minority Ministries Council is replaced by an Associate Secretary for African-American concerns.

1982 - African-American Mennonite Association is formed to administer the affairs and concerns of African-Americans in the Mennonite Church.

1986 - Leslie Francisco III becomes the second African-American Mennonite bishop commisioned in the Mennonite Church.

1997 - Dwight McFadden is affirmed moderator of the Mennonite Church at the Mennonite convention in Orlando.