Time Line of African-American Mennonites 1688- Mennonites and Quakers
denounce the treatment of salves by salveowners. 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, IL. 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, becomes director 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 became the second African-American Mennonite bishop commisioned in
the Mennonite Church. 1997 - Dwight McFadden became moderator of the Mennonite
Church at the Mennonite convention in Orlando.
Created
and maintained by John E. Sharp
Last updated 7 September 1999