When Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) was young, he was sent on an errand by an anti-slavery office in New York City. He overheard two prominent lawyers talking about a recent conversation with John Calhoun, a senator from South Carolina. In the senator’s words, “If I could find a Negro who knew the Greek syntax, I would then believe that the Negro was a human being and should be treated as a man.” As a young African American, Alexander took these words to heart as a personal challenge. He attended a New York City school for free blacks and was invited to enroll at an academy in Canaan, New Hampshire for students of all races. In 1835, he trekked hundreds of miles through heavy snow with two friends, only to be run out of town by hostile whites. Alexander became a candidate for the gospel ministry in the Episcopal church yet was denied admission to General Theological Seminary as the bishop feared it would upset pro-slavery donors. He attended classes at Yale Divinity School as a restricted student, meaning he couldn’t participate in class discussions or have access to library resources. When he applied for admission to the Episcopal Diocese of Philadelphia, the bishop accepted him but restricted him from attending diocesan meetings. Prominent abolitionists such as William Wilberforce made it possible for him to study at Cambridge University in England, the first black to do so. He served for twenty years as a Christian missionary to Liberia, started an Episcopal church in Washington, DC, and taught at Howard University. In the last year of his life, he founded a school to promote black scholarship in arts and sciences, challenging the widespread belief that blacks were suited only for unskilled jobs and industrial trades. What perseverance! It puts my petty slights and disappointments into perspective. Given what we know about his life, his 1888 prayer has added relevance:
Alexander Crummell
We bless God for all the favors and mercies of the year! For health, comfort, prosperity, the means of grace, and the hope of glory. We bless Him for even the tribulations of our lot in this land, which is, without doubt, a schooling for future generations. We bless Him for the promise, discovered to sight by signal providences, of usefulness and exalted service for Him in this nation in coming times. And we beseech Him, for the Redeemer’s sake to make us faithful men and women, in our families, with our children, in the church. In the entire race: for the glory of His great name, for the succor and safety of the nation, and for the good of man. Amen.
Alexander Crummell, Destiny and Race: Selected Writings, 1840-1898, (1942), p242.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.