Time Line of African-American Mennonites

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

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

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

1946 - October 6: James H. Lark becomes the first ordained AA Mennonite minister,Bethel Mennonite Church, Chicago, IL.

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