SESQUICENTENNIAL WORSHIP SERVICE - December 11, 2016

Sesquicentennial Celebration

SESQUICENTENNIAL WORSHIP SERVICE ————— “Celebrating Our Spiritual Heritage and Foundation” Thou Who Hast Brought Us Thus Far on the Way __________

Sharp Street M. E. Church

Centenary Biblical Institute

Sunday, December 11, 2016 10:00 am.

Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church 1206 Etting Street Baltimore, Maryland 21217 Presiding: Pastor Raphael K. Koikoi, Jr.

Copyright © 2016 by Morgan State University All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the authors.

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CONTENTS I.

Purpose and Occasion ..............................................................................................................

II. Congratulatory Letters ..............................................................................................................

III. Order of Service .........................................................................................................................

IV. Methodism, Morgan and Memory: Morgan State University— 150 Years in the Making ...........................................................................................................

V. A Chronology of Morgan State University’s Historic Methodist Past— Beginning at Sharp Street Church as the Centenary Biblical Institute ...................................

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Methodist Leaders Associated with the History of the Centenary Biblical Institute and Morgan State University .................................................................................................

VII. Pastors of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church .............................................................

VIII. Members of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees: 1950-2008 ............................

IX. Directors of the Morgan Christian Center: 1941-2008 ..........................................................

X. Campus Chaplains and Ministerial Associates ........................................................................

XI. Friends of the University Memorial Chapel: 2011-2016 ........................................................

XII. Pictorial History .........................................................................................................................

XIII. References ..................................................................................................................................

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

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Methodism, Morgan and Memory: Morgan State University—150 years in the Making,

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he history of Morgan State University is a mirror-like reflection of the agency African Americans employed to obtain their freedom from enslavement and their desire to exercise the franchise, as well as educate themselves. They employed all of these mechanisms during enslavement and immediately after the Civil War to equip the youth and rising adults of the race to participate as fully-actualized American citizens according to the U.S. Constitution and its civil war amendments, which were inked with blood and gore.

The idea of Morgan found residence in the minds of African-American congregations within the Methodist Episcopal Church, North. The Methodist denomination holds an exclusive position within American history in general and Baltimore, Maryland, in particular. The coalescence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, of African American agency and of the fruitfulness of the post-war years provided the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore a unique opportunity to birth an institution of higher learning for African Americans. The sons and daughters of Morgan would blossomed into careers spanning not only the gamut of traditional fields in education, theology, and science, but also modern fields like global journalism, theater arts and urban planning.

These three elements—American Methodism, African-American agency and the birth of the Centenary Biblical Institute—when contextualized, form the foundation of Morgan State University. Over the course of 150 years, through expansion and collapse, the elements, enlivened by its heritage of faith, infused by its mission to grow the future and inspired by its potential to influence other communities of color worldwide to reach above and beyond imposed limitations, forged the premier public urban research university that Morgan is today.

American Methodism: American Methodism is an eighteenth-century import from London, England. Initiated as a reform movement to the Church of England, John Wesley, the progenitor of Methodism, realized that the status quo did not want reform of its staid theological underpinnings and ecclesiastical culture to incorporate all people. Therefore, John Wesley, later joined by Charles Wesley, grew their concept into the Methodist denomination. Methodist theology arrived in Maryland in the 1770s.

The Wesley brothers employed a systematic, methodical structure in their bible study groups. The bible study sessions were evangelistic in nature, and they sought to spread the “good news” to underserved populations. The sharing of the good news through systematic bible study reassured poor people that God was the Father of mankind and that all humanity were brothers in His eyes.

This perspective demystified the wealthy and emboldened poor people, who could now see, beyond their meager trappings, that God was just and fair. Salvation and human worth did not come through material trappings, but was a free gift of grace from a loving God. To share his message, Wesley visited America and was appalled by the gruesome sight of enslavement. He published a book entitled Thoughts Upon Slavery where he upbraided the greediness of the British chattel system that purported that the Christianization of African people was best achieved through enslavement. He believed that no homeland or people on earth were so debauched that they warrant chattel enslavement for the spreading of Christianity. Until his death, Wesley abhorred the American Methodists who reconciled their trafficking in human property with a narrow reading of the Holy Scripture.

The Methodist message reached Baltimore, Maryland, in 1773. The fledging British colony buzzed about religious freedom. The social class structure of England lost its appeal in the realization that God was the Father of all of mankind and that salvation was a free gift of grace.

On December 24, 1774, in the Lovely Lane Meeting House the historic “Christmas Conference” established the American branch of Methodism. The tones of evangelicalism and equality resonated with African Americans attending Methodist churches. Within the first 30 years,

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Methodism spread along the eastern seaboard. Throughout the colonies their evangelical message appealed to fair-minded colonists. Concurrently, select African Americans received the message of the Wesley brothers. Unfortunately, the tinge of American-style racism resulted in the formation of the African Methodist Episcopal [A.M.E.] Church. The A.M.E. Church organized by Richard Allen of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, embraced the evangelical message of Wesley without the inherent racism of America’s ante-bellum society.

After Allen’s departure in the 1790s, another group of African Americans in New York left the Methodist Church to form the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church [A.M.E.Z]. The A.M.E.Z. was organized by James Varick and others who, like Allen in Pennsylvania, embraced the evangelical message of Wesley, and they pushed for full citizenship for African Americans in the sacred and profane worlds. At the close of the 1790s, Wesley died and was estranged from his religious reformation as expressed by Americans.

control. To the contrary, those who left and formed Sharp Street Methodist opted to remain and reform the Methodist denomination. Although the multiple branches of AfricanAmerican Methodists differed in their solution to the problem, they remained connected to the bonds of Methodism and combined their resources to further the gospel message and opportunities for African-American Baltimoreans. In essence, American Methodism followed the larger tenor of racism within society, yet there were moments through its denominational history when reason won the day and all benefited from coming together for the good of the order and the call to Christian brotherhood.

African-American Agency: The rise of independent congregations within the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, was not an easy process. The denominational politics within the Methodist church sought to relegate African-American congregations to separate spaces within their respective white mother churches, offering alternative times for majority African-American services and rites of faith. When those gestures were rejected, African Americans sought their own physical spaces to worship as Methodists. These spaces were hard to locate because the state of Maryland remained a slaveoperating state until 1864, and many parishioners were still legally enslaved. Many free African Americans used their personal wealth and affiliation with the A.M.E. Church to assist in locating worship places.

Another break within the Methodist family happened in 1844 over the tension of owning enslaved people. Bishop James Osgood Andrews, a southerner, inherited, through his wives enslaved property. According to the Methodist Book of Discipline, the denominational polity for clergy stated that no clergy could own enslaved property. After several marriages due to spousal deaths, Bishop Andrews’s inheritance of enslaved woman Kitty resulted in his being stripped of his episcopacy. Bishop Andrews denied “owning” Kitty and allowed her to choose relocation to Liberia, as stipulated in the will of Andrews’s widow, or to remain free in Georgia.

She remained. In 1844, the growing abolitionist movement within the Methodist church exposed Bishop Andrews’s situation as a loophole. Moreover, the national crisis over enslavement impacted many Protestant denominations. The end result was a Plan of Separation in which northern churches and southern churches within the Methodist Episcopal denomination split according to geo-political ideology. Bishop Andrews served as the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

There was a growing desire in the places of worship to have African-American leadership over African-American congregations within the Methodist Church. The earliest African-American minister within the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, was Daniel Coker. Coker, a mixed-race man born to an enslaved father and a white indentured servant mother in 1780 in Baltimore County, was afforded an opportunity to learn. The historical record is murky on how he was able to attend school, but it is clear that he was exposed to formal education. As an adult, he escaped to New York, where he changed his name from Isaac Wright to Daniel of biblical fame and Coker, his mother’s surname. In 1801 he returned to Baltimore and attracted the attention of Bishop Francis Asbury, who cultivated his ability to preach by ordaining him a deacon at Lovely Lane. Moreover, Bishop Asbury assisted Coker in legally obtaining his freedom from his enslavers in Frederick County, Maryland.

Yet African Americans who formed their own congregations under the branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church North remained loyal to the Wesleyan vision. These African Americans separated into separate congregations organizationally connected to the Methodist Episcopal Church, North. Their relationship with their white mother churches was amicable at best and antagonistic at times. In Baltimore, Lovely Lane Methodist Church experienced a fracture with its African-American members. One fracture resulted in the formation of the Colored Methodist Society [C.M.S.]. The C.M.S . reflected African-American discontent with being marginalized within the House of God, yet and still there was dissension within the C.M.S. about whether to leave and follow the example of Allen or Varick or remain and reform the general denomination. One delegation left and formed Bethel A.M.E. Their concern was that the leadership of the church needed to be in African-American

Coker’s popularity within the Methodist church grew and attracted the parishioners at Sharp Street Church. He operated a school at Sharp Street and continued to spread the Methodist doctrine. Unfortunately, the Methodist Episcopal Church refused to ordain him as a minister; being ordained would have secured for him a pulpit and congregation.

Frustrated by the neglect of the church, Coker aligned himself with Richard Allen’s A.M.E. Church. Coker sought to persuade members of Sharp Street to leave and join the A.M.E. Church. They would ordain him, and the congregation would have greater influence and sovereignty under black leadership. This idea attracted some, while

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others opted to remain within the Methodist Episcopal Church denomination. The institutional connection between the A.M.E. Church and the African Americans of the Methodist Episcopal Church was severed in April 1816. The two congregations were now two separate denominations of free and enslaved people. The early years were tensions-filled and marked an ideological separation that would take decades to repair. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 granted Sharp Street Church its own incorporation, making it a semiindependent entity within the Methodist Episcopal denomination. It would be another 32 years, in 1864, before African-American congregations within the Methodist Episcopal denomination would become organizationally independent through the formation of the Washington Conference.

Washington Conference churches operated Sabbath Schools that instructed children and adults in biblical understanding; however, preparation for the ministry and the need for additional teachers required a level of formal training beyond the Sabbath School. As early as 1864, within the founding meeting of the Washington Conference, the minutes show that there were discussions about creating a school to train ministers and teachers.

The Birth of Centenary Biblical Institute: African American agency contributed significantly to the formation of the Centenary Biblical Institute. Enslaved and free African Americans opted to seek their own vine and fig tree to exercise their faith in God. Sharp Street Pastor Benjamin Brown, Sr., closed the inaugural Washington Conference with this resolution:

The Washington Conference provided regional jurisdiction for African-American Methodist Episcopal churches in the states of Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. The original churches were:

Resolved, above all, that we do hereby offer devout thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all good things, for the blessing of his Providence in making Maryland a Free State, and restoring liberty to many of our brethren who have heretofore been in bondage. To God be the glory and to us, the privilege and duty of making this dispensation available to our moral and intellectual elevation. (“Morgan State College Centennial Observance Program 1867-1967” [Lovely Lane United Methodist Church Museum and Archive – Black Colleges BoxMorgan Folder])

Sharp Street: Baltimore, MD Asbury: Baltimore, MD John Wesley: Baltimore, MD Dallas Street: Baltimore, MD Linganore: Frederick, MD Asbury: Washington, D.C. Ebenezer: Washington, D.C. Mount Zion: Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Orchard Street: Baltimore, MD Roberts Memorial: Alexandria, VA Sharp Street: Sandy Springs, MD Patapsco: Baltimore County, MD

In step with the larger Methodist vision of systematic training in biblical instruction, the end of the Civil War marked an urgent need for schools and teachers for the formerly enslaved to help them understand the duties and responsibilities of citizenship and freedom. For African Americans, education was a passport to a better and fuller life marked by participation as equals and as a citizens. The Methodist denomination viewed the capacity to learn and teach to be a biblical mandate to strengthen a brother who has been down, according to Galatians 6:1. The sin of ignorance had been forced upon a people, and now those who were spiritual needed to restore the victims of imposed ignorance.

In October 1864, under the direction of a white Bishop Levi Scott, the 12 African-American churches held the first meeting of the Washington Conference at Sharp Street in Baltimore. Bishop Scott stated, “It is important that on the day the first Annual Conference of Colored Preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church ever held in the State of Maryland, closes is the day on which the dominion of Slavery ceases.” Within the same conference, Sharp Street church appointed Benjamin Brown, Sr., as its first African-American pastor. Similarly, other churches that formed the Washington Conference would fill their pulpits with African-American pastors well into the twentieth century, for over 100 years.

The larger Methodist Episcopal Church, North, would reconcile itself by 1958, forming the United Methodist Church in 1968, while the African-American spaces of the Washington Conference and the later Central Jurisdiction would merge with their white counterparts in the 1970s.

To accomplish their mission the Washington Conference, through the leadership and membership of Sharp Street, approached the Baltimore Conference, through Lovely Lane, to join their mission and support the vision. Lovely Lane selected thirteen trustees for the school.

These men were: Thomas Kelso Francis A. Crook William Daniel, Esq. Henry W. Drakely Reverend William Harden Hugh L. Bond

The agency of African-American Methodist within and outside of the Wesleyan ideal provided the intellectual framework for the establishment of the Centenary Biblical Institute. These men and women, free and enslaved, utilized the methodical instruction in the Bible and egalitarian vision of John Wesley to provide instruction and education. The

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Reverend James H. Brown Isaac P. Cook Reverend Samuel Hindes William B. Hill Reverend John Lanahan Reverend Charles A. Reid Reverend Robert Turner

underpinning for temperance and vision, inspired by a personal Christian relationship based in knowing his city, his denomination and his people. Toward this end, the Methodist influence will be forever ingrained in the record of Morgan. Over the years, secularization has reduced the Methodist influence, yet it remains a vibrant aspect of Morgan’s mission and purpose within higher education, as envisioned by John Wesley, crafted by the Washington Conference, charted by the Baltimore Conference and instituted by its 12 presidents for over 150 years.

The men who comprised the 13 trustees were all affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, North. The interconnectedness of Methodists and the Centenary Biblical Institute remained fixed from 1866 to 1939, when the first name change occurred. The Centenary Biblical Institute changed to Morgan College in honor of Lyttleton Morgan, pastor of Lovely Lane and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centenary Biblical Institute, serving as chairman from 1876-1886. During an era of expansion, with a campus in Princess Anne, in Somerset County, and in Baltimore city, the institution flourished under the leadership of Dr. John F. Goucher, another pastor from Lovely Lane.

Suggested Readings Barrett, Simone R. “From Humble Beginnings to a Profound Impact: A Brief History of Lovely Lane United Methodist Church and Its Effect on the African American Community of Baltimore, Maryland” [M.A. Thesis, Department of History, Morgan State University, May 2010].

Gibson, Larry S. “Remarks by Larry S. Gibson to the Morgan State University Alumni Association,” January 11, 2014, [unpublished paper from Professor Gibson].

The leadership and direction of Morgan College remained heavily influenced by Methodist ministers and congregations from 1860s to the 1930s. Even the first African-American president, Dr. D. O. W. Holmes, who was appointed in 1937, was the son of a Methodist minister and former pastor at Sharp Street in Baltimore. He was a formally trained educator with an earned Ph.D. In President Holmes, the vision of the early Washington Conference synergized, as it had under Dr. John Oakley Spencer (a formally trained educator who served as president from 1902 to 1937). During his tenure, Holmes doubled the enrollment and increased the credentials of the faculty. He positioned Morgan to be an exemplary state college. In 1939, the state of Maryland purchases Morgan College, changing the name to Morgan State College. In 1975 Morgan State College became Morgan State University. Throughout its history, various campus locations, and name changes, Morgan maintained a closelywoven relationship with the Methodist Church. The location of the Lynchburg campus of Morgan (1983-1917) is directly related to the contributions of Jackson Street Methodist Episcopal Church. According to the records of Jackson Street, its congregation contributed to liquidating the debt of Morgan by mortgaging its property.

Gore, Sherese A. “Lynchburg Church Celebrates 150 Years,” The News & Advance, October 16, 2016, [online accessed November 23, 2016].

Lincoln, C. Eric, and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.

Wilson, Edward N. The History of Morgan State College: A Century of Purpose in Action 1867-1967 . New York: Vantage Press, Inc., 1975.

In essence, the arrival of Dr. Holmes combined all of the elements that contributed to the birth of Morgan—American Methodism and African American agency. The network between the various branches of African-American Methodism, as well as white and African American congregations within the Methodism Episcopal denomination, provided resources and warm contacts throughout the region, state and federal government.

Secondly, his professional training in education and work within the field from elementary to higher education afforded him a unique perspective for gauging the current and future needs of African Americans. Finally, his faith served as an

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A Chronology of Morgan State University’s Historic Methodist Past Beginning at Sharp Street Church as the Centenary Biblical Institute "Let us march on till victory is won" James Weldon Johnson, 1899

1787: Leaders and Members of “The Colored Methodist Society,” a group of independent black ministers and members, led by James Forte, evolved into Sharp Street Church, known as the "Mother Church" of Black Methodism in Maryland. Sharp Street Church formed when black worshippers separated from the Lovely Lane Meetinghouse in Baltimore. Lovely Lane Meetinghouse, the oldest Methodist Church in Baltimore, was established by the 1784 Christmas Conference. Sharp Street was the first African-American Methodist Church in the City of Baltimore. The motivation to separate from Lovely Lane in 1787 was crucial.

Increasingly, early black Methodist leaders and congregants sought to assert leadership over their lives in order to address their social, economic, political, and educational needs more effectively. The early Methodist Church refused to recognize African-American leadership or even to integrate pews.

1797: Sharp Street Church, three years after leaving the Lovely Lane Meetinghouse, acquired a school to teach African-American children to read.

1802: Reverend Daniel Coker, born Isaac Wright into slavery, was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and licensed to preach by Bishop Francis Asbury. He was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Reverend Coker conducted the first day school for Negroes in a building in the rear of Sharp Street Church in 1853. Reverend Coker also organized a Methodist society for freed slaves en route to Liberia in 1822. Thirteen members of Sharp Street were among pioneer settlers to Liberia.

1802: Baltimore Free Black Congregants built the Sharp Street Church and fostered the establishment of other churches, schools, and social institutions for both free and slave people of Baltimore and Maryland. Land located at 112-114 Sharp Street was conveyed to the "Trustees of the Colored Methodist Society," hence the name Sharp Street Church. It is worth noting that the 1802 Baltimore City land deed for the property references Sharp Street African Methodist Episcopal Church.

1802: James Carey, a Methodist member of The Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes and Others, Unlawfully Held In Bondage, conveys a lot for the construction of Sharp Street Church to “The Colored Methodist Society.”

1824: The General Conference of the Methodist Church authorizes the use of Black preachers as Black Methodist preachers and intensifies their efforts to attain leadership and greater autonomy in the governance of their churches and their church affairs.

1832: Reverend Richard C. Lyons, Acting Minister of Sharp Street Church, is pastor on 18 July 1832 when the church is formally incorporated. Part the Act of Incorporation states: We, the Ministers and Trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of Baltimore hereby declare that the aforegoing proceedings mentioned and alluded to have been duly and legally conducted according to the law and discipline of our Church.

The signatories were: William Watkins, Spindle Williams, Peter Bennett, Richard Carey, Joseph P. Wilson, Robert Bower, Thomas Jackson, Perry Smith, and Thomas Hillards.

1836: Frederick Douglass “had been a class leader and choir singer in the Sharp Street Church from 1836 to 1838,” according to Dr. Benjamin Quarles, B.A., M.A., Ph.D, Chairman of the Department of History at Morgan State University from 1953-1974. A statue of Mr.

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Douglass stands on the campus of Morgan State University, directly in front of Holmes Hall, which honors the memory of Dr. Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, Morgan College's first African-American President. Dr. Holmes was the son of a pastor of Sharp Street Church, Reverend John Holmes.

Church, is awarded a certificate stating: Rev. N. J. B. Morgan is constituted a Life Member of the Sharp Street African Methodist Episcopal Church ... by his Friends of Sharp Street Church, Ordered by the Board of Trustees, January 2, 1862, J. W. Bull, President, and Richard Matthews, Secretary.

1844: The Methodist Episcopal Church "Plan of Separation" divided the Methodist Episcopal Church, North and South, over the issue of slavery.

1864: Reverend Benjamin Brown, one of the Founders of Centenary Biblical Institute, and Pastor of Sharp Street Church, called a meeting of Colored Members, Ministers and Leaders of Sixteen Black Churches in the Baltimore Conference, and Black Church Laymen. Reverend Brown was an original member of the Washington Conference and the first of two African-American preachers to be seated in the law-making body of Methodism in the General Conference. Led by Reverend Brown of Sharp Street, these leaders successfully petitioned the May 1864 Philadelphia General Conference of the Methodist Church to establish distinct conferences for colored pastorates within the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Journal of the General Conference of May 19, 1864, records the following:

1848: Zion Lodge # 4 Free Masons, Prince Hall was one of several secret organizations which met in Sharp Street Church to address economic, educational, social, and political concerns of Baltimore’s free black and slave community. Sharp Street was a central meeting place for such groups, and the church’s facilities provided the foundation and nucleus for the first colored public school in Baltimore, after the abolition of slavery in the State of Maryland in 1864.

1848: Black Methodist Leaders petition the General Conference of the Methodist Church for separate conferences. The petition is denied. Several petition requests are denied until the General Conference held in Philadelphia in 1864.

(1) Our colored members, ministers, and laymen feel that the times are auspicious to the development of their mental and moral power, and request from us the facilities necessary to this end.

1852: Reverend Samuel Green, one of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was born a slave in 1802.

He became a freedman and minister or exhorter of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Dorchester County, Maryland. In 1852, he served as a delegate to the Convention of Free Colored People in Maryland in Baltimore. In that same year, a Convention of Colored Local Preachers and Laymen convened at Zoar Methodist Church in Philadelphia. This group met annually until 1863. In October 1855, Reverend Green attended the National Convention of the Colored People in the United States held at Franklin Hall in Philadelphia.

Reverend Green was one of ten men admitted into a Conference of Colored Local Preachers organized at Zoar Church in 1857 under Bishop Levi Scott. In July of 1864, he was an organizer of the Delaware Annual Conference. Reverend Green worked on Committees for Education and Religious Instruction supporting the Centenary Biblical Institute.

(2) A colored pastorate they recognize as among the most important of these facilities, securing to them a ministry adapted to their wants, encouraging their young men to enter the ministerial field, and offering motive and opportunity for general ministerial advancement; (3) They do not, however, propose to secure this by—indeed they are utterly opposed to—separation from our Church either with a view to a union with another, or to an independent organization. (p. 486) In response, the 1864 General Conference recommended and approved the following preamble and resolution: Whereas, in the present circumstances of our country, the colored people occupy a position of peculiar interest, appealing to our Christian sympathy, and inviting our missionary enterprises; and Whereas, This enterprise cannot now be made efficient by the policy of our Church hitherto pursued toward them, and special measures have therefore become necessary; and Whereas the exigencies of the case require to efficiency prompt action; therefore, be it

1858: Reverend Francis Burns, said to be “thoroughly African in complexion,” was ordained as the first black to the Methodist Episcopacy. In January 1858, the Liberian Annual Conference elected Reverend Burns as their first Bishop. He was consecrated later that year by the Genesee Conference on 14 October 1858. He served in Liberia as the first Missionary Bishop from 1858 until April 1863. Because of illness, Bishop Burns returned to the United States on April 18, 1863, and died in Baltimore within three days of his return, three months after the Emancipation Proclamation.

1. Resolved, By the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Conference that it is the duty of the Church to encourage colored pastorates for colored people wherever practicable and to contribute to their efficiency by every means in our power.

2. Resolved, That the efficiency of said pastorates can be promoted by distinct conference organizations, and that therefore the bishops be and they are hereby authorized to organize among our colored ministers, for the benefit of our

1862: Reverend Nicholas J. B. Morgan, Bishop and Presiding Elder of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist

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colored members and population Mission Conferences -one or more- where in the godly judgment the exigencies of the work may demand it.

thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all good, for the blessings of His Providence in making Maryland a Free State, and restoring to liberty - many of our brethren, who have heretofore been held in bondage. To God be the glory, and to us, the privilege and duty of making this dispensation available for our moral and intellectual elevation.

3. Resolved, That our General Missionary Committee be requested to take into careful consideration the condition of our colored people, and should conferences be organized among them, make to them- consistently with other demands upon its funds- such appropriations as may be essential to success. (page 487)

1864: Reverend James Peck, one of the Founders and Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop and Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church, 1868 -1869, was an original member and founder of the Washington Annual Conference. He was recommended by the Quarterly Conference of the Sharp Street Station.

The Mount Auburn Cemetery, the first African-American burial ground in Baltimore City, was negotiated for purchase while he was pastor of Sharp Street. Reverend Peck was made the first African-American pastor in charge of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., after the organization of the Washington Annual Conference in October 1864. Black trustees were elected to succeed the formerly all-white trustees at Asbury. Reverend Peck came to Sharp Street as its pastor in 1868.

1864: Report of the Committee on Education of the General Conference of the Methodist Church, adopted on May 27, 1864, recommended in response to the question: How shall the Church provide for the higher education of her youth?

(1) It is recommended that wherever practicable each Conference have at least one academy or seminary under its direct supervision and that such institutions confine themselves to their legitimate spheres or duties; (2) It is recommended that, as a general thing, not less than four Conferences unite in support of a college or university;

1864: Reverend James H. Harper, one of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was one of the original founders and organizers of the Washington Annual Conference in October 1864. He was recommended by the Quarterly Conference of the Dallas Street Station and was pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church from 1865-1868. He was born a slave and licensed to preach in 1808.

(3) All these schools are, to a certain extent beneficiary institutions. The academy must be furnished with buildings and apparatus by the benevolence of the Church; (4) It is advised that educational societies for the aid of poor young men be established in connection with each of our colleges and biblical institutes, or Annual Conferences. (page 258)

1864: Reverend Elijah Grissem, one of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop, was an original member and organizer of the Washington Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. He was recommended to the Conference by the Quarterly Conference of the Dallas Street Station.

1864: Reverend Levi Scott, D.D., Bishop, in The Minutes and Proceedings of the First Session of the Washington Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church General Held In Sharp Street Church, Baltimore, October 27-31, 1864, state: In accordance with the action of the late General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, providing for the organization of Mission Annual conferences for the Colored people belonging to said church; and in pursuance of Espiscopal arrangement, Reverend Levi Scott, D.D., one of the General Superintendents, met the Colored Local Preachers who have been in the Pastoral Work within the Territory of the proposed Washington Conference on Thursday, October the Twenty Seventh, Anno Domini One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty Four, in the Sharp Street Church, Baltimore, Maryland. Reverend Benjamin Brown was elected Secretary Protem. The Bishop called for recommendations of Brethren to constitute the conference, whereupon Bishop Nicholas J. B. Morgan, Presiding Elder of the Baltimore DistrictBaltimore Conference, presented the following: Benjamin Brown, James Peck, James Harper, Elijah Grissem."

1864: Reverend Henry C. Westwood, Bishop, General Conference of the Methodist Church.

1864: Reverend Elisha P. Phelps, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1864: Reverend John Nelson Mars, Pastor of Sharp Street Church, who was active as an anti-slavery lecturer and missionary to thousands of slaves who escaped to Canada, pastored Sharp Street from 1865-1866. He attended and conducted Religious Exercises at the first meeting of the Washington Annual Conference in October 1864, where Bishop Levi Scott formally announced his transfer from the New England Conference.

1866: Reverend John H. Brice was Pastor of Sharp Street Church, 1866-1867. While he was Sharp Street pastor, in 1866, the Washington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, led by the Sharp Street congregation,

At its first meeting, the newly formed Washington Annual Conference approved the following resolution: Resolved, Above all, That we do hereby offer devout

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sought the assistance of the Baltimore Conference to establish a school to train preachers and community leaders.

Biblical Institute, was a Bishop and member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Regarding the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop Cook recorded the following in his Register of Appointments:

1866: Reverend Levi Scott, Bishop, Baltimore Conference, invites Thomas Kelso, William Harden, William Daniel, and William Hill to a meeting on Christmas Day, 1866.

These men decide that at least eight additional men should work with them in undertaking the huge task of establishing a school.

The Centenary Biblical Institute Organized December 25, 1866 1867 April 30— First Meeting at Colored Baptist Church, Calvert Street.

First meeting, present Thomas Kelso, William Daniel, I. P. Cook, and 15 Colored preachers. Tuesday, E.I.P.C. (Isaac P. Cook) delivered a conversational lecture.

1867: Reverend Edward Raymond Ames, Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (North), Washington Area, an associate of Bishop Levi Scott, on January 3, 1867, met with Bishop Scott and thirteen men designated by the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church to serve as Trustees of the proposed school. Those present were:

1867 May 7— Second Meeting at Sharp Street Church, Lecture by Rev. James H. Brown, I.P.C. (Isaac P. Cook) present, made brief address.

Thomas Kelso, Founder/Trustee of Centenary Biblical Institute, served as President of the Preacher’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was an active Methodist whose philanthropic efforts aided Methodist education and charitable causes. He was a businessman and the first president of the Institute's Board of Trustees, 1867-1876.

Reverend Cook was an active participant at the first meeting of the Washington Annual Conference at Sharp Street in October 1864. The Conference issued this resolution at that meeting: Resolved, That the thanks of the conference be returned to Rev. Isaac Cook for his liberal donation of Stationery for our use.

Reverend John Lanahan, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church, attended the first meeting of the Washington Conference at Sharp Street Church. He had been a member of Committee on the State of Affairs of Work Among Colored People, which reported its recommendations at the General Conference held in Philadelphia in May 1864.

Reverend Robert Turner, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Reverend Samuel Hines, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Reverend Henry W. Drakeley, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Hugh Bond, William B. Hill, William Daniel, Francis A. Crook, Founders/Trustees of Centenary Biblical Institute were designated by Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Reverend William Harden, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. He instructed the first class of twenty Institute students with Reverend James H. Brown. Bishop Harden attended the General Conference held in Philadelphia in 1864.

1867: Reverend Warner Cook, Pastor, Sharp Street Church, 1867-1868, was born into slavery, bought his freedom before the Civil War, joined the Washington Conference, and served as pastor of Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

Reverend James H. Brown, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church and one of the first teachers in the Institute. Reverend James delivered a "systematic course of lectures" to nine prospective Centenary Biblical Institute ministerial students on April 30, 1867.

1869: Reverend Thomas A. Davis was Pastor of Sharp Street Church. He was appointed an Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and pastored Sharp Street from 1869 to 1870.

1870: Reverend Robert H. Robinson, Pastor of Sharp Street Church, was born into slavery in 1825 and self-educated, was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Levi Scott in 1866 and ordained an Elder in 1868. He was admitted on trial at the Washington Conference in 1864. Reverend Robinson was Sharp Street’s pastor from 1870-1873.

Reverend Robinson is identified as pastor in 1872 at the time the second church charter was executed. This charter indicates that the church’s name changed from

Reverend Charles A. Reid, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a Member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Reverend Reid was a participant during the first meeting of the Washington Annual Conference at Sharp Street Church.

Isaac P. Cook, Founder/Trustee of the Centenary

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the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Sharp Street African Methodist Episcopal Church to Sharp Street Station of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1874: Mary J. Barnes, Rachel Garner, Josephine Jones, Deborah A. Moore, Anna H. Robinson, and Cornelia Washington were the first female students accepted by Centenary Biblical Institute.

1872: Reverend J. Emory Round, A.M., D.D., First President of Centenary Biblical Institute, 1872 to 1882.

Reverend Round was an abolitionist and an assistant editor of Zion's Herald. Zion's Herald was the first Methodist weekly newspaper, first published in 1823.

1876: Reverend Henry Addison Carroll, B.A., Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was born in Calvert County, Maryland in 1835. He spent three years in Centenary Biblical Institute and was pastor of Sharp Street Church from 1876 to 1877. He was taught to read by reading the Bible, licensed to preach in 1863, and admitted to the Washington Conference in 1865. He is interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Baltimore.

1872: Reverend Edmund S. Janes, Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1872: Reverend R. S. Rust, D.D., L.L.D, was Field Secretary, Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Church. Following the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Aid Society contributed funds to start a Colored Normal School for teacher training and to assist African Americans in building schools for their children. With the support of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, the Centenary Biblical Institute was able to hire its first full-time president.

1877: Reverend Charles Grafton Key, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1877 to 1880, was a Morgan College Trustee at its inception in 1890 and served Morgan College until 1896. Reverend Key was received into full membership at the session of the Washington Conference held at Sharp Street in 1867. He was a member of the Washington Conference for 43 years.

1873: Reverend Perry Green Walker, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1873-1876, was licensed to preach in 1858, and he was admitted at the first session of the Washington Conference by Bishop Levi Scott.

1877: John H. Griffin, member of Centenary Biblical Institute's first graduating class, was named assistant in the Institute’s Intermediate Department, 1879-1880.

1874: Reverend Matthew Clair, Sr., Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1877: Sylvester A. Norwood, member of Centenary Biblical Institute’s first graduating class, was named assistant in the Institute’s Intermediate Department, 1879-1880.

1874: Reverend J. W. E. Bowen, Sr., Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1877: Reverend John H. Nutter, D.D., Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Centenary Biblical Institute’s first graduating class. He was named President of the Baltimore City Branch Academy in 1886.

1874: Reverend Lyttleton F. Morgan, D.D., Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Reverend Morgan served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1876 to 1886. He was one of the Institute’s most generous donors and in 1890, the name of the Centenary Biblical Institute was changed to Morgan College to honor him. Reverend Morgan lived from 1813-1895 and is buried in the Bishop’s Lot at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. A marker at Mount Olivet cites his contributions to Centenary Biblical Institute and Morgan College:

1878: Reverend Isaac L. Thomas, B.A., M.Div., Pastor of Sharp Street Church, entered the Centenary Biblical Institute in 1878. He was licensed to preach in 1880 and joined the Washington Conference in 1882. He was appointed Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church in 1901 and served until 1905.

1878: Susie H. Carr, B.A., of Lynchburg, Virginia, was the first female graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute. She married Reverend Julius H. Love, an 1878 graduate of Centenary. Reverend and Mrs. Love were parents of Dr. Edgar Amos Love. The Morgan Christian Center Chapel, dedicated on December 16, 1941, is named after Susie Carr Love.

After the war Morgan was a steady but passionate worker for the education of those freed from slavery, and became Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Centenary Biblical Institute which had been founded by the Washington Conference of “Colored Members” in 1867. From his personal funds, he endowed the Institute, enabling it to become a full four-year college—the first such college in Maryland for African Americans. In 1890, the Institute was re-christened Morgan College (later Morgan State University).

1878: Reverend Julius H. Love, B.D., was an 1878 Centenary Biblical Institute graduate of the Theological Department. Reverend Love married Susie H. Carr, the first female graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute. He was a Bishop in the Washington Conference.

1874: Reverend William F. Speake, Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1879: Reverend Edward G. Andrews, Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1874: Reverend Thomas Bowman, Bishop, was a member of

1879: Reverend John F. Goucher, B.A., M.A., D.D., L.L.D, Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a

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member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. Dr. Goucher entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore Conference, in 1869. He became minister of First Church, now Lovely Lane United Methodist Church, in 1883. Dr. Goucher was elected to Centenary Biblical Institute’s Board of Trustees in January 1880, and became Chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1886. He was the first Chairman of the Morgan College Board of Trustee, serving until 1921.

He and Mrs. Goucher donated a plot of land at Fulton and Edmondson for the construction of one of the Institute’s early buildings. According to Dr. Marilyn Southard Warshawsky, in her book John Franklin Goucher: Citizen of the World (2016), the minutes of the March 8-10 Baltimore Annual Conference stated this about Dr. Goucher:

Street Memorial Church, 1880-1883, was the father of Dr. Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, the first AfricanAmerican President of Morgan College. He joined the Washington Conference in 1872.

1882: Reverend William Maslin Frysinger, D.D., Second President of the Centenary Biblical Institute, 18821888. While President, Centenary Biblical Institute established branch academies in Princess Anne, Maryland, and Lynchburg, Virginia.

1882: Reverend Thomas B. Snowden, B.D., first to receive a Seminary Degree from Centenary Biblical Institute, was appointed Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology in the Institute.

1883: Reverend James White Dansbury, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1883-1885, was Born in Cambridge, Maryland, in 1823, and was licensed to preach by the Asbury Quarterly Conference (Washington, D.C.) in 1843. He was admitted to the Washington Conference in 1886.

Rev. John F. Goucher has been the instrument to set on foot and render possible, a plan that promises to place this enterprise upon an ample and secure foundation.

Profoundly impressed with the vast possibilities of good to this neglected people in adequate educational facilities for training especially of secular and religious teachers, and having it in his power to aid materially in their realization, he purchased a site admirable in character and location, on which to erect a building adapted to the uses of the Institute. (page 143),

1885: Attorney Ashbie Hawkins, B.A., L.L.D., a graduate of the Centenary Biblical Institute and a Member of the Board of Trustees of Sharp Street Church, was the first African American in Maryland to run for the United States Senate.

1885: Reverend Edward Walters Steward Peck, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1885-1888, was born in Baltimore in 1843 and licensed to preach in 1863. He was a member of the Washington Conference beginning in 1865. During his time at Sharp Street, the Sharp Street Chapel at Mount Auburn Cemetery was erected (1888). It is now Mount Winans United Methodist Church.

While chairman, the Centenary Institute established branches in Princess Anne, Maryland, and Lynchburg, Virginia, and the Institute’s charter was changed to allow Centenary Biblical Institute to offer college level courses.

Dr. Goucher was also Chairman of the Board when the college negotiated the purchase of the Ivy Mill Tract, the site of the present Morgan State University campus. Dr. Goucher signed the deed transferring nearly twenty-five acres from Morgan College to a separate company responsible for developing Morgan Park, which would be divided into 137 lots. (Warwhawsky, page 387):

1886: Reverend Joseph R. Waters, D.D., Pastor, helped to establish the Centenary Biblical Institute’s Academy at Princess Anne. Reverend Waters was a member of the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church and the first Pastor of Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church in Princess Anne, Maryland.

Bishop Earl Cranston of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church and a Morgan College Trustee from 1912 to 1916 said about Dr. Goucher’s commitment to Morgan:

1886: Reverend John A. B. Wilson, Presiding Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Salisbury District, in 1866, purchased and then deeded the 16-acre property in Princess Anne known as "Olney" to the Centenary Biblical Institute, where the Delaware Academy at Princess Anne was established as a branch of Centenary Institute. Dr. John F. Goucher, Trustee, and Dr. William Frysinger, Centenary Institute’s President, were personally involved in locating and purchasing this property.

He was more than a mere contributor- he was the ever accessible and reliable defensive and aggressive friend and promoter, sharing in its administration and planning largely for its future development. (Earl Cranston, “John F. Goucher—Modern Apostle and Civilized Saint,” Methodist Review, January/February 1923.)

1879: Reverend G. G. Baker, Financial Contributor to the Centenary Biblical Institute, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1886: Reverend Benjamin Oliver Bird graduated from the Centenary Biblical Institute and served as a faculty member and principal of the Institute’s Princess Anne Branch from 1886 to 1897. Following his death in 1897, his wife, Portia E. Lovett Bird, became principal.

1880: Reverend Edward Gayer Andrews, Bishop, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), Washington Area.

1880: Reverend John Alexander Holmes, Pastor of Sharp

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Lynchburg, Virginia, where he was that city’s first black male teacher and its first black high school principal. In 1902, he succeeded Reverend Pezavia O'Connell as Principal. He was principal at the Princess Anne Academy until 1910.

1888: Reverend Francis J. Wagner, A.M., D.D., Third President of the Centenary Biblical Institute, which became Morgan College in 1890 during his tenure, 18881901, was a member of the Minnesota Conference of the Methodist Church.

1888: Reverend Samuel G. Griffin, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1888-1891, joined Sharp Street in 1867 and was a delegate to Washington Conference 1n 1872 and 1879.

1895: Attorney George F. McMechen, B.A., J.D., was awarded the first baccalaureate degree from Morgan College and, later, was the first African American on the Baltimore Board of School Commissioners, 1944-1950.

He was a member of the Morgan Corporation and a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees. A McMechen Hall on the campus is named in his honor.

1888: Reverend John Wesley Edward Bowen, Ph.D., pastored the Centennial Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore and was Professor of Church History and Systematic Theology at the Centenary Biblical Institute.

He was a member of the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church.

1896: Reverend Daniel W. Hayes, D.D., was Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1896-1899. The Sharp Street congregation moved from "Old Sharp Street Church" into its new sanctuary at Dolphin and Etting Street in 1898, during the pastorate of Reverend Hayes. Reverend Hayes was born a slave in 1851. He joined the Washington Conference in 1892.

1888: Reverend W. W. Davis was a Professor at the Centenary Biblical Institute.

1888: Reverend John Fletcher Hurst, Bishop, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) Washington Area.

1897: Mrs. Portia E. Lovett Bird, wife of Reverend Benjamin O. Bird, was Principal and Teacher at the Princess Anne Academy, 1897-1899.

1889: Reverend Matthew W. Clair, L.L.D., Trustee of Centenary Biblical Institute and an 1889 graduate of the Institute, was one of the first African Americans in Methodism to achieve the Office of Bishop. His first parish was at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1889: Reverend Hampton C. Kispaugh, was a graduate of the Centenary Biblical Institute.

1899: Reverend Alfred Young, was Pastorof Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1899-1901. His daughter, Dr. Louise Young, the first African-American woman to practice medicine in Maryland, was the women’s physician at Morgan College.

1889: Reverend M. C. B. Mason, Ph.D, D.D., was Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the Methodist Freedmen’s Aid Society and Southern Education Society.

1889: Reverend Nathaniel Monroe Carroll, B.A., D.D., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1891-1896, was a graduate and Trustee of Centenary Biblical Institute He was an original member of the Washington Conference at its inception in 1864.

1899: Reverend McHenry J. Naylor, B.A., M.Div., D.D., Morgan College graduate and pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church from 1912 to 1921, was a Bishop in the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church.

The Sharp Street Community House was built on land that was owned by Reverend Naylor. He also provided the land on which the Morgan Christian Center was built.

1889: Reverend George E. Curry, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, was a Methodist pastor in Baltimore.

1889: Reverend Ernest Williams, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, was a Methodist pastor in Annapolis, Maryland.

1900: Reverend Pezavia O'Connell, B.D., Ph.D., Principal of the Princess Anne Academy, 1900-1902, was the first principal with an earned doctorate. Reverend O'Connell was a member of the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church. In 1920, he became head of the History Department at Morgan College. O'Connell Hall on the Morgan State University campus is named for Reverend O'Connell.

1890: Reverend D. H. Carroll, was one of the first Morgan College Trustees.

1891: Reverend William Sampson Brooks, B.A., graduate of Morgan College and Founder the University of Liberia, was a Bishop in the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church. In 1825 thirteen members of Sharp Street were pioneer settlers of Liberia.

1900: Reverend David H. Hargis, B.A., was a Morgan College graduate. Reverend David and Mrs. Hattie W. Hargis were Morgan Christian Center benefactors.

1893: Reverend Frank Trigg, A.M., was Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1921-1922. In 1893, Morgan established the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute at Lynchburg, Virginia. Reverend Trigg was the first Principal of the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute. Reverend Trigg taught grade school in

1901: Reverend Charles Edmund Young, B.A., M.A., D.D., Dean and Acting President of Morgan College, 19011902, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

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Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), Washington Area.

1901: Reverend Isaac L. Thomas, B.D., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1901-1905, entered Centenary Biblical Institute in 1878 and joined the Washington Conference in 1882.

1910: Reverend George E. Stevens was Principal of the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute at Lynchburg, Virginia.

1901: Reverend Ernest Lyon, was Professor of Church History at Morgan College, U. S. Minister to Liberia, 1903-1910, then minister of Ames Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore.

1913: Miss Harriett A. Woolford, B.A., a graduate of Morgan College, was a teacher at the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute, 1913-1917. The Lynchburg branch was destroyed by fire in 1917. Miss Woolford was responsible for rescuing students from the fire. Woolford Infirmary is named in her honor.

1902: Dr. John Oakley Spencer, PhD., L.L.D, Fifth President of Morgan College, 1902-1937, was a member of the Baltimore Conference. He was the longest-serving President of the institution, and Morgan received its first accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and School under his leadership. Spencer Hall on the Morgan campus is named in his honor.

1915: Reverend Lee Marcus McCoy, B.A., M.A., Litt.D., was Principal of the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute at Lynchburg.

1915: Reverend William Pickens, A.B., A.M, Litt.D., was Dean of Morgan College, 1915-1920, and NAACP Field Secretary.

1902: Reverend John W. Haywood, Sr., Ph.D., Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1916: Reverend William Frazer McDowell, A.B., STB., was Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), Washington Area.

1904: Reverend Earl Cranston, Jr., B.D., M.A., of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church, served as President of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Board of Education and was a Morgan College Trustee, 19121916.

1917: Reverend Walter E. Stanley, B.A., a Morgan College graduate, was District Superintendent of the Methodist Church, Peninsula Conference. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1905: Reverend William Alfred C. Hughes, Sr., B.A., was pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church from 1905 to 1912. He was licensed to preach at age 17.

Reverend Hughes was a 1897 graduate of Morgan College. Because he introduced football to Morgan and organized a team, he is considered the “Father of Morgan Football.” Hughes Stadium on the Morgan campus is named for him. Bishop Hughes was admitted to the Washington Conference in 1897. In June 1940, Reverend Hughes and Reverend Lorenzo King were the first Bishops elected by the newly organized Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. The Central Jurisdiction formed in 1939 when the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church reunited to form The Methodist Church.

1920: Dr. Edward N. Wilson, B.A., was a Morgan College graduate, Methodist Lay Leader and the delegate to General Conferences. Dr. Wilson was a member of the Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church. He served in the Office of the Morgan College Registrar, 1921-1963, and was author of The History of Morgan State College: A Century of Purpose in Action—1867-1967, published in 1975.

1922: Reverend Charles W. Baldwin, D.D., was Chairman, Morgan College Board of Trustees, 1922-1938. Baldwin Hall on the Morgan Campus is named in his honor.

1922: Reverend William H. Dean, Pastor of Sharp Street Church, 1922-1926. He joined the Washington Conference in 1903 and became District Superintendent in 1928.

1905: Reverend W. L. Hubbard, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, was District Superintendent, Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church.

1926: Reverend Noah W. Moore, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, was a Bishop, Methodist Church, Houston, Texas.

1905: Miss Cornelia Wilson, B.A., a graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, was a teacher in the Baltimore Colored High School.

1926: Reverend Walter English was Pastor of Sharp Street Church, 1926-1930.

1929: Reverend Arthur J. Payne, B.A., graduate of Morgan College was a Minister and civic leader.

1905: Miss Meta Redden, B.A., a graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, was a teacher in Baltimore public schools.

1930: Reverend John Waters, Jr., was Pastor of Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 1930 to 1933.

1907: Reverend William F. Anderson, Bishop, was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1933: Reverend Robert Coates was Pastor of Sharp Street from 1933 to 1942.

1908: Reverend Edward Holt Hughes, A.B., A.M., was a

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composed primarily of Morgan State College and Methodist Church officials. Dr. Morris A. Soper was the first Chairman, and Methodist Bishop Alexander Preston Shaw was Vice Chairman. The Morgan Christian Center continued to be Methodist-related under the governance of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees until 2008. These remarks were recorded in a 1948 Morgan Christian Center Newsletter:

1936: Reverend James Henry Straughn, B.A., D.D., L.L.D., Bishop, was President of the Methodist General Conference.

1937: Dr. Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ph.D., L.L.D., Sixth President of Morgan College1937-1948 was Morgan College’s first African-American President. He was the son of Reverend John Alexander Holmes, pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1880-1883. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees. Holmes Hall on the Morgan campus is named in his honor.

Dr. John O. Spencer . . . had much to do with the planning of the Christian Center and it was his firm belief that through the Center we can, in a moral and spiritual way, reach the growing numbers of the State College.

1939: Reverend Seth G. Edwards, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, was a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Reverend Edwards was the first President of Cuttington College and Divinity School in Monrovia, Liberia. He served for eleven years from 1949 to 1960.

Cuttington College literature states that “Father Edwards and able staff were responsible for laying the foundation for the moral and academic excellence of the college.”

It is gratifying to note that the Board of Trustees of the Morgan Christian Center, with the support of the Baltimore Area, the Baltimore Conference and the Board of Education of the Methodist Church, are pioneers in building one of the first Student Centers among Negroes in the world. The Delaware, Washington and Baltimore Conference have passed resolutions designating the entire Race Relations Sunday offerings to the Morgan Christian Center.

1939: The Trustees of Morgan College voted to transfer Morgan College to the State of Maryland, ending its longstanding relationship with the Methodist Church. This recommendation was consummated by action of the Maryland General Assembly, and the sale was done with the consent of the College’s Board of Trustees and the Delaware and Washington Conferences of the Methodist Church. At this time, Dr. Morris A. Soper was Chairman of the Morgan College Board of Trustees, 1938-1939. He became the first Chairman of the Morgan State College Board of Trustees, 1939-1953.

1940: Reverend Alexander Preston Shaw, A.B., B.D.,D.D., was Bishop in the Methodist Church (Central Jurisdiction), Baltimore Area, from 1940-1952. He was the first African-American Bishop to preside full-time over a predominantly white Annual Conference: the Southern California-Arizona Conference in 1950. He was a member and a Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Morgan Christian Center.

1941: Reverend John Jarvis Seabrook, B.A., L.L.D., L.L.M, served as the first Director of the Morgan Christian Center from 1941-1945. The Morgan Christian Center was dedicated on December 16, 1941. Dr. Matthew S. Davage, the first black president of Rust College, stated this in his dedication remarks:

1939: Reverend McHenry J. Naylor, ThCer., PrCer., D.Div, was Pastor of Sharp Street Church from 1912 to 1921.

The Morgan Christian Center was established under the auspices of the Methodist Church upon the sale of Morgan College to the State of Maryland. The Trustees used a part of the proceeds from the sale to purchase land adjacent to the College. The land was provided by Dr. McHenry J. Naylor. The Morgan Christian Center was constructed on this site and dedicated in 1941. At the Dedicatory Exercises of the Morgan Christian Center on December 16, 1941, The Reverend Dr. Edgar A. Love stated:

In the dedication of Morgan Christian Center we reaffirm our adherence to the faith of the founding fathers who believed that “knowledge without character is dangerous.”

Reverend Seabrook left Morgan College to become President of Claflin College, 1945-1955.

1942: Reverend Herbert Green was appointed as Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Episcopal Church in 1942.

Here the influence of the Church and the Christian religion will go on influencing the lives and character of the boys and girls who are trained in Morgan State College.

This institution dedicated today will stand as the lasting monument to all who have sacrificed through the years, that Christ might be exalted among men and his spirit infused into the lives of all who are being trained that they may go forth impressed with the world's needs and filled with the desire to help to administer to that need.

1943: Reverend Kelly L. Jackson, B.A., was a 1926 graduate of Morgan College, and pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church from 1943 to 1947 and from 1962 to 1967. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees. Reverend Jackson was a member of the Delaware Conference before transferring to the Baltimore Conference. He was the organizer and first president of Black United Methodist Ministers.

1939: The Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees was established upon the sale of Morgan College to the State of Maryland. Plans for the construction of the Morgan Christian Center began at this time. This board was

1944: Reverend Charles Wesley Flint, B.D., Ph.D., was a Bishop in the Methodist Church (Northeast Jurisdiction), Washington Area.

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1945: Reverend Howard Lee Cornish, B.A. M.A., Litt.D., was a 1927 graduate of Morgan College. Reverend Cornish spent all of his professional life in service to Morgan College. He was a Professor of Mathematics from 1927 to 1957 and Director of the Morgan Christian Center from 1945 to 1976. He lived in a parsonage next to the Christian Center which was designed by the renown African-American architect Albert I. Cassell, who was also the architect of the Christian Center building.

Reverend Cornish was also an Associate Pastor at Sharp Street Memorial Church during the pastorate of Reverend Joshua O. Williams. He was active in Baltimore’s Ministerial Alliances and civil rights and civic organizations. The Christian Center and the parsonage were meeting places for leaders of Baltimore’s AfricanAmerican community from the 1940’s onward. The Morgan Christian Center, like Sharp Street Station Church, was a strategic center for African Americans in pursuit of justice and equality. Student activists who led the Read's Drug Store and Northwood protests were advised, supported, and encouraged by Methodist and other clergy and Morgan administrators and faculty. The Morgan Christian Center was the Student Union Building during this period. The parsonage was home to Reverend Cornish and Mrs. Althea Cornish, his secretary and able assistant during his long ministry. Their son, Lee Cornish, was a 1966 Morgan graduate and Morgan Basketball Hall of Famer. The parsonage was razed by the university in 2012.

the Christian philosophy and idealistic principles so deeply instilled into it by this great Church.

Congratulations were offered by Bishop Alexander Preston Shaw, Chairman of Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees; Judge Morris Soper, Chairman Emeritus, Trustee Board; Bishop Edgar A. Love, Resident Bishop, Baltimore Area; Dr. Martin D. Jenkins, President, Morgan State College; and Reverend Howard L. Cornish, Director, Morgan Christian Center.

1952: Reverend Edgar Amos Love, D.D., L.L.D., 1909 Graduate of Morgan College, was a Bishop in the Methodist Church (Central Jurisdiction), Baltimore Area.

He was the son of Mrs. Susie Carr Love, first female graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, and Reverend Julius H. Love, an 1878 graduate of Centenary and Sharp Street pastor. Bishop Love was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1955: Reverend Edward Gonzalez Carroll, B.A., M.Div., L.L.D., D.D. , a 1930 graduate of Morgan College, was pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church from 1955 to 1962. From 1937 to 1941 Reverend Carroll was a Professor of Ethics and Religion at Morgan College. He was elected Bishop of the Methodist Church in 1972. Reverend Carroll was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees, and he was twice a Director of the Morgan Christian Center, from 1983 to 1984, and again in 1991.

1960: Reverend John Wesley Lord, A.B., B.D., was a Bishop in the United Methodist Church, Washington Area.

1947: Reverend Joshua O. Williams was Pastor of Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church from 1947 to 1955.

In 1948 Sharp Street Church hosted the Washington Annual Conference and, during the session, dedicated a Tower Chimes system in memory of Bishop William Alfred C. Hughes, Sr. Mrs. Dorothy M. Dougherty, Sharp Street Historian, notes this about Reverend Williams:

1962: Reverend Kelly L. Jackson. During Reverend Kelly’s second pastorate at Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, 1962 to 1967, the Washington Conference celebrated its Centennial at Morgan State College. The following was written in a 1964 Souvenir Program, Our Heritage, about the celebration:

His vision was to recapture the spirit of the founding pioneers and to leave a legacy for which future generations would be proud.

The Washington Annual Conference of the Methodist Church celebrated its 100th Anniversary at Morgan State College, June 10-14, 1964. The theme of the week was, 'The Church - A Redemptive Fellowship.' Bishop Edgar A. Love was Resident Bishop; Rev. Ramsey Bridges, Charleston District was Host Superintendent and Rev. Howard Cornish was Director of the Morgan Christian Center and Host of the Conference. The Washington Annual Conference Secretary was Rev. Napoleon Carrington.

1948: Dr. Martin David Jenkins, B.S., B.A., M.A. Ph.D., L.L.D., Seventh President of Morgan State College, 1948-1970, was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees. When Sharp Street celebrated its Sesquicentennial in 1952, Morgan State College extended its greeeting this way in a souvenir program: When the Centenary Biblical Institute (precedessor to Morgan College and Morgan State College) was founded, Sharp Street was 65 years old and was a potent influence in the spiritual life of Baltimore. This Church nurtured the Institute during its early days, permitting classes to be taught in lecture rooms, and its main sanctuary to be used for the commencement exercises and other meetings.

A Pilgrimage was made to the Old Sharp Street Church site in Baltimore and to the present Etting Street site where the Rev. Kelly L. Jackson was the Pastor. The Welcome at the June 10th Evening Session was given by Dr. Martin Jenkins, then President of Morgan State College. Mayor Theodore McKeldin gave the Anniversary Address, and said:

Today, Morgan State College is a progressive and growing institution because it cannot depart from nor can it forget

. . . As I read with great interest the proceedings of the first

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Center. Dr. McKinney came to Morgan in 1951 to serve as the first chairman of Morgan's Philosophy Department. While attending Yale University, Reverend McKinney preached at Pond Street Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island. He then taught and directed the Religious Studies Program at Virginia Union University. In 1944, he was named president of historically black Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. A frequent speaker and supporter of the programs of the Morgan Christian Center, after his retirement from Morgan in 1978, he returned as Interim Director of the Morgan Christian Center from 1980 to 1981.

Conference I noted that it convened only hours apart from the official act which made Maryland a free state. The efforts of this Conference and its friends during this 100 year period toward the attainment of complete freedom has been significant."

1965: Reverend John Richard Bryant, B.A., M.Th., D.Min., a graduate of Morgan State College, is Senior Bishop and Presiding Prelate of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

1967: Reverend Forrest C. Stith, B.S., M.Div., D.D., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church from 19671970, was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area, 1984-1996. In 1967, during Reverend Stith’s tenure as pastor of Sharp Street, the last session of the Central Jurisdiction was held in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Washington Conference, begun in 1864, ceased to exist. That same year Morgan State College celebrated its Centennial Anniversary and its founding as the Centenary Biblical Institute. In a foreword to Celebrating the Past, Envisioning the Future, Former Washington Conference Reunion, A Chronological Account of the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church, by Reverend Dr. Horace L. Wallace (August 2006), Bishop Stith observed:

1981: Reverend Robert Douglas Force, B.A., M.Div., M.S.W., M. Legal Studies, was Director of the Morgan Christian Center and a Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, 1992-1994. Reverend Force was Director of the Morgan Christian Center from 1981 until 1983. Before coming to Morgan, Reverend Force has been chaplain at Bluefield State College and pastor of the Good Samaritan United Methodist Church in St. Louis, Missouri. In a 1993 publication, Congregational Heritages-Baltimore North, Reverend Force wrote this about the "Mother Church of the Washington Conference:" The Beginning: In October 27, 1984 the Washington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in the Sharp Street Station of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 112-116 Sharp Street, Baltimore, Maryland. Its goal was freedom and equality; thus, setting in motion a profound legacy that continues today.

For as long as there has been a Methodist presence in our country African Americans have a played a vital role in its presence and development.

Bishop Stith urged that the history of the Washington Conference not be taken for granted, that it be celebrated.

1970: Reverend Richard Clifford, B.A., M.Div., was Pastor of Sharp Memorial United Methodist Church from 1970 to 1977.

The End: One hundred years later, in 1964, the last session of the Washington Conference celebrated in brilliant style. The Centennial Anniversary began with a pilgrimage from Morgan State College to the original Sharp Street site. The procession moved uptown to the present Sharp Street Memorial Church at Dolphin and Etting Streets where the opening service was held. The evening session was held at Morgan State College. The dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction and the merger of the Washington with the Baltimore Conference led Bishop Edgar A. Love to state, “What has God wrought?”

1972: Reverend James Kenneth Matthews, B.A., D.Min., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area.

1976: Reverend Quincy Darnell Cooper, A.B., S.T.B., S.T.M., D.Min., was Director of the Morgan Christian Center, 1976-1980. Reverend Cooper received his undergraduate education at Maryland State College, an institution founded as the Princess Anne Academy in September 1886 as a branch of the Centenary Biblical Institute.

1984: Dr. Earl Stanford Richardson, B.S., M.S., Ed.D., Eleventh President of Morgan State University, 19842010. Dr. Richardson was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1977: Reverend John Wesley Coleman, B.A., M.Div., was the pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, 1977 to 1985. While Reverend Coleman was pastor, Sharp Street Church and the Community House were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Plans to open a church archives were also developed and a church historian was designated.

1984: Reverend Joseph Hughes Yeakel, A.B., M.Div., S.T.D., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area, 1984-1996, and member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1985: Reverend Eugene Matthews, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., was Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church from 1985 to 1988. As pastor, he organized Sharp Street’s Bicentennial Celebration and dedicated the Sharp Street Archival Center.

1980: Reverend David Frederick Wertz, B.A., M.A., D.Th., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church.

1980: Reverend Richard Ishmael McKinney, B.D., S.T.M., Ph.D., was Interim Director of the Morgan Christian

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1985: Reverend Richard Ross Hicks, B.S., M.Div., was

former slaves in 1868.

Director of the Morgan Christian Center, 1985-1987.

While serving as Director of the Morgan Christian Center, Reverend Hicks was also a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Morgan State University.

He had previously pastored churches in Delaware and Maryland, including a church in Princess Anne, Maryland.

1996: Reverend Felton Edwin May, B.A., D.D., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area, 1996-2004.

2000: Reverend James Allen Bishop, was Pastor of Sharp Street United Methodist Church from 2000-2003.

2000: Reverend Marion C. Bascom, B.A., B.Div., D.D., was Interim Director of the Morgan Christian Center.

Reverend Bascom pastored the Douglass Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Maryland , for forty-six years. Douglass Memorial was an independent church which had split with Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1925. Reverend Bascom was active in civil rights and participated in protests with Morgan students at Northwood during the 1960’s. He was Baltimore's first African-American Fire Commissioner.

1987: Reverend Donald Matthews, B.S., M.A., Ph.D., was Director of the Morgan Christian Center, 1987.

Reverend Matthews was an ordained Methodist minister and was active in youth and young adult ministries prior to coming to the Morgan Christian Center.

1987: Reverend Frank Leviticus Williams, A.B., B.D., was Director of the Morgan Christian Center, 1987-1990.

Reverend Williams was a renown leader in the Methodist Church. He was ordained in the Washington Conference and served as pastor of the historic Asbury Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., for sixteen years. He was also a president of the Baltimore Ministerial Alliance during the 1960’s.

Between 2000 and 2008: Reverend Richard T. Adams, B.A. Ph.D., a Morgan graduate, served on the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees and is a member of Friends of the University Memorial Chapel; Reverend John Carter; and Reverend Barbara Wilkes served as Interim Directors of the Morgan Christian Center.

1988: Reverend Charles Albert Johnson, B.A., M.Div., D.Div., was Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, 1988-1991.

1988: Reverend Susan M. Morrison, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference.

2003: Reverend Leonard Felton, B.S., M.Div.,D.Div., was a graduate of Morgan State University and served as Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church from 2003 to 2004.

1990: Reverend Frank Ellis Drumwright, B.A., M.Div., was Director of the Morgan Christian Center, 1990 to 1991.

Reverend Drumwright, while serving as Director, was also an instructor in Morgan’s Religious Studies Program.

2004: Reverend John Roland Schol, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference, 2004-2012.

2005: Reverend Dellyne I. Hinton, B.A., M.Div., was a 1979 graduate of Morgan State University. Reverend Hinton served the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church as its pastor from 2005 to 2012, the first and only female pastor in the history of Sharp Street Church.

1992: Reverend Herbert O. Edwards, A.B., S.T.D., Ph.D., was Director of the Morgan Christian Center from 1992 until 1994. Reverend Edwards was a Morgan graduate and was a Professor of Religious Studies and head of the Department of Religious Studies.

2008: Reverend Peggy Johnson, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., was a Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference.

1994: Reverend Bruce F. Haskins, B.A., M.Div., D.Div., was Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, 1994-2000.

2008: The Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees deeded the former Naylor property on which the Morgan Christian Center is situated to Morgan State University, ending the Morgan Christian Center’s decades-long relationship with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1995: Reverend Douglas B. Sands, A.B., M.Div., S.T.D., was Director of the Morgan Christian Center. Reverend Sands, a Morgan graduate, was also an instructor of political science and religious studies. He was appointed Director of the Morgan Christian Center in 1995 and served for several years. He pastored several Methodist churches in the Baltimore area. As a student, Reverend Sands was one of the founders of the Morgan State-based, Civic Interest Group. He was a part of a group of Morgan State College students who were involved in sitin demonstrations at the Northwood Shopping Center in the early 1960’s. Reverend Sands also served as a marshal for the 1963 March on Washington. In retirement Reverend Sands pastored the White Rock Church in Carroll County, Maryland, which was established by

2008: Reverend Bernard Keels, B.A., M.Div, D.Div, Dean of the Morgan State University Memorial Chapel, has served as Director of the Morgan State University Memorial Chapel since 2008. Reverend Keels was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and served as a deacon. In 1979, he joined the United Methodist Church, was ordained a minister, and was assigned to St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, where he served until 1985.

Following this assignment, he pastored two other Methodist congregations, and from 1992 to 2008 he was

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District Superintendent for the Baltimore Northwest area. In July 2016, Morgan State University President David Wilson promoted Reverend Keels as the University's first-ever Dean of the Morgan State University Memorial Chapel. Dean Keels is also an adjunct faculty member in Morgan’s Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. In announcing this appointment President Wilson stated:

Christian Center, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This achievement honors its Founders and underscores Morgan State University’s historic Methodist beginnings as the Centenary Biblical Institute.

Presently, the University is committed to the full restoration of the Historic University Memorial Chapel, formerly the Morgan Christian Center.

2012: Reverend Raphael K. Koikoi, B.A., M.Div. was appointed Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church in 2012. He refers to himself as the Lead Servant of the Sharp Street congregation. He attended Morgan State University and is a consultant to the Morgan State University Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee.

The installation of Morgan’s first-ever Dean of the Chapel, places the University in a strengthened position to expand its community impact while enhancing its faith-based initiatives and service to students.

In a November 7, 2012 article by Jarrett L. Carter, Morgan State Chapel: HBCU Alumni and Students Work to Revitalize Sanctuary In Baltimore City, published in HBCU Digest, Dean Keels stated:

2016: Dr. David Wilson, B.S., M.S., Ed.M., Ed.D., Twelfth President of Morgan State University, was appointed in July 2010. Dr. Wilson serves as President of Morgan State University during its Sesquicentennial. Dr. Wilson graduated from historically black Tuskegee University, where initial space for the school was provided by the Butler Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Tuskegee Institute’s founder and first teacher, Dr. Booker T. Washington, was at Hampton Institute in 1881 when he was invited to Tuskegee to become the first teacher and principal of the Negro Normal School in Tuskegee.

His contemporary at Hampton, Dr. Frank Trigg, left Hampton and became the first black male teacher and first black high school principal in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Dr. Trigg was the first leader of Centenary Biblical Institute’s academy in Lynchburg in 1893 and was principal at Princess Anne Academy from 1902 to 1910.

He also pastored historic Sharp Street Church 19211922.

HBCU chapels are the “spiritual heartbeat” of a campus, and serve as a focal point for members of the HBCU community to examine belief beyond religious practice or doctrine. In our tradition, as people of color, we've always had a strong connection to how the exercising of our faith informs our professional, ethical and moral choices So in the black community, almost all of the college trained people had a very sound basis for faith and understood what their purpose was in life.

2009: The Morgan State University Memorial Chapel became the new name of the Morgan Christian Center, after its deed was transferred to Morgan State University.

As before, the venerable University Memorial Chapel remains the center of religious and spiritual life at Morgan State University and is dedicated to fulfilling the spiritual, temporal and religious needs of students, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni of all faiths. In keeping with its interfaith mission, clergy representing the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions are available as resources of the Chapel. A new Islamic Prayer Room opened in renovated space within the Chapel in 2012, to serve the University's growing Islamic community.

2011: Friends of the University Memorial Chapel was formed by Reverend Keels in response to alumni and student concerns about the physical and fiscal status of the University Memorial Chapel. The Friends of the Chapel consists of alumni, members of the community, students, and Morgan faculty. Some were members of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees. Serving as advocates for the Chapel, the Friends of the University Memorial Chapel work diligently to mobilize resources for the support of the Chapel. The forging of closer relationships within the University is key to the Chapel's long term success. During 2011 and 2012, students in the School of Architecture and Planning, under the direction of Dean Mary Anne Akers and Professor Dale Glenwood Green, researched and documented the Chapel’s history and its social and architectural significance. As a result of this alliance, the building dedicated on December 16, 1941, as the Morgan

Dr. Wilson follows an historic legacy of founding leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. It is prophetic that on May 3, 2016, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Morgan State University a National Treasure. At the announcement Dr. Wilson honored Morgan’s past as it looks to the future: We have known of Morgan's significance on the higher education stage for many years and now, as we prepare to celebrate our 150th anniversary, the world will know that, in fact, this university is a national treasure. We are very excited and honored by this designation from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In many ways, it is recognition of the value we have placed on caring for and preserving the history of the great Morgan State University.

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December 11, 2016: We remember that the 1964 Centennial of the Washington Conference began with a pilgrimage to Sharp Street Memorial Episcopal Church from the Morgan Christian Center on the campus of Morgan State University. We also remember that Bishop Edgar A. Love posed this question, “What has God wrought?” With assurance, we may humbly state, that on Christmas Day, December 25, 1866, God granted us a National Treasure, which stands today as Morgan State

University. Today we reaffirm our Founder’s resolve: Resolved, Above all, That we do hereby offer devout thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all good, for the blessings of His Providence for granting to us, the privilege and duty of making this dispensation available for our moral and intellectual elevation. To God be the glory.

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Methodist Leaders Associated with the History of the Centenary Biblical Institute and Morgan State University 1787: Leaders and Members of “The Colored Methodist Society"—This group of independent Black ministers and members, led by James Forte, evolved into Sharp Street Church, known as the “Mother Church” of Black Methodism in Maryland. Sharp Street was the first AfricanAmerican Methodist Church in the City of Baltimore. The motivation to separate from the Lovely Lane Meeting House was crucial because the early Methodist Church refused to integrate pews and recognize African-American leadership.

1802: Reverend Daniel Coker, born Isaac Wright, into slavery, ordained a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church and licensed to preach by Bishop Francis Asbury, one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Reverend Coker conducted the first day school for Negroes in a building in the rear of the church in 1853.

1802: Baltimore Free Black Congregants constructed the Sharp Street Church and fostered the establishment of other churches, schools, and social institutions for both free and slave people of Baltimore and Maryland. Land located at 112-114 Sharp Street was conveyed to the “Trustees of the Colored Methodist Society,” hence the name Sharp Street Church.

1802: James Carey, a Methodist member of The Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes and Others, Unlawfully Held In Bondage, conveys a lot for the construction of Sharp Street Church to “The Colored Methodist Society.”

1832: Reverend Richard C. Lyons, Acting Minister of Sharp Street Church and “having charge of said congregation did duly elect . . . at their general conference . . . a body politic or corporate . . . by the name of Trustees of The African Methodist Episcopal Church of the City of Baltimore.” The Articles of Incorporation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore were executed 18 July 1832.

1862: Reverend Nicholas J. B. Morgan, Bishop and Presiding Elder of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church, is constituted a “Life Member of the Sharp Street African Methodist Episcopal Church” by the Sharp Street Board of Trustees.

1864: Reverend Levi Scott, D.D., Bishop, General Conference of the Methodist Church, convened a board of thirteen members to assist Sharp Street in establishing an educational institution for the training of men for the ministry.

1864: Reverend Benjamin Brown, Sr., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church, 1864, original member of the African American Washington Annual Conference. He was one of the first of two African-American preachers to be seated in the law making body of Methodism in the General Conference.

1864: Reverend Henry C. Westwood, Bishop, General Conference of the Methodist Church.

1864: Reverend Elisha P. Phelps, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1864: Reverend James H. Harper, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church. Born a slave and licensed to preach in 1808, one of the founders and organizers of the Washington Conference, and pastor 1865-1866.

1864: Reverend Elijah Grissem, Bishop, an original member and organizer of the Washington Annual Conference of the Methodist Church.

1864: Reverend Samuel Green, Freedman and Minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of ten men to be admitted into the first Conference for Colored Preachers, under the rule of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Member of Education and Religious Instruction Committee supporting the Centenary Biblical Institute.

1865: Reverend John Nelson Mars, Pastor. Active as an anti-slavery lecturer and missionary to thousands of slaves who escaped to Canada, Sharp Street Pastor,1865-1866.

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1866: Reverend John H. Brice, Pastor, Sharp Street Church, 1866-1867. In 1871, he was appointed Presiding Elder of the Lynchburg, Virginia District.

Conference of the Methodist Church. Second Charter was executed, changing church name from Sharp Street African Methodist Episcopal Church to Sharp Street Station of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1867: Reverend Edward Raymond Ames, Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (North) Washington Area.

1872: Reverend Edmund S. Janes, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1867: Reverend James H. Brown, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. One of the first teachers in the Institute. Delivers a "systematic course of lectures" to nine prospective Centenary Biblical Institute ministerial students on April 30, 1867.

Instructs the first class of 20 students with Reverend William Harden.

1872: Reverend E. R. Ames, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1872: Reverend R. S. Rust, D.D., L.L.D, Field Secretary, Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Church.

1872: Reverend J. Emory Round, A.M., D.D., First President of Centenary Biblical Institute, 1869-1882.

An abolitionist and Assistant Editor of Zion's Herald.

1867: Reverend Henry W. Drakeley, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1873: Reverend Perry Green Walker, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1873-1876. Licensed to preach in 1858, he was admitted at the first session of the Washington Conference by Bishop Levi Scott.

1867: Reverend William Harden, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

Instructs the first class of 20 Institute students with Reverend James H. Brown.

1874: Reverend Matthew Clair, Sr., Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1874: Reverend J. W. E. Bowen, Sr., Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1867: Reverend Samuel Hindes, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1874: Reverend Lyttleton F. Morgan, D.D., Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. Dr. Morgan served as the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees, 1876-1886, and was one of the Institute’s most generous donors. In 1890, the name of the Centenary Biblical Institute was changed to Morgan College to honor him.

1867: Reverend John Lanahan, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1867: Reverend Charles A. Reid, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1874: Reverend William F. Speake, Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1867: Reverend Robert Turner, One of the Founders of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1874: Reverend Thomas Bowman, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1867: Reverend Warner Cook, Pastor, Sharp Street Church, 1867-1868. Born a slave, he bought his freedom before the Civil War, joined the Washington Conference, and served until 1899.

1874: Mary J. Barnes, Rachel Garner, Josephine Jones,

Deborah A. Moore, Anna H. Robinson, Cornelia Washington, first female students accepted by Centenary Biblical Institute.

1868: Reverend James Peck, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church, 1868-1869, Bishop and original member of the Washington Annual Conference, and Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute. The Mount Auburn Cemetery, the first African-American burial ground in Baltimore City, was negotiated for purchase.

1876: Reverend James O. Peck, Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church.

1876: Reverend Henry Addison Carroll, Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Pastor of Sharp Street Church, 1876-1877, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. He spent three years at Centenary.

1869: Reverend Thomas A. Davis, Pastor. He was appointed an Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and pastored Sharp Street 1869-1870.

1870: Reverend Robert H. Robinson, Pastor. Born a slave and self educated, he participated in the organization of the Washington Conference in 1864, was ordained Deacon by Bishop Levi Scott in 1866, ordained an Elder in 1868, and pastored Sharp Street from 1870-1873.

1877: Reverend Charles Grafton Key, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1877-1880. A member of the Washington Conference, he was a Morgan College Trustee, 1890-1896.

1871: Reverend Matthew Simpson, Bishop, Baltimore

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1877: John H. Griffin, Member of Centenary Biblical Institute’s first graduating class, named assistant in the

Institute’s Intermediate Department, 1879-1880.

establish the Centenary Biblical Institute’s Academy at Princess Anne, Member of the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church, first Pastor of Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church in Princess Anne, MD.

1877: Sylvester A. Norwood, Member Centenary Institute’s first graduating class, named assistant in the Institute's Intermediate Department, 1879-1880.

1886: Reverend John A. B. Wilson, Presiding Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Salisbury District, deeded the 16-acre property in Princess Anne known as “Olney” to the Centenary Biblical Institute where the Princess Anne Academy was established.

1877: Reverend John H. Nutter, D.D., Trustee of the Institute, member of Cententary Biblical Institute's first graduating class, named President of the Baltimore City Branch Academy in 1886.

1878: Reverend Isaac L. Thomas, Pastor, attended the Centenary Biblical Institute, Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1901-1905.

1886: Reverend Benjamin O. Bird, graduated from the Centenary Biblical Institute, served as faculty member and principal of the Institute’s Princess Anne Branch, 1890-1897.

1878: Susie H. Carr, B.A., of Lynchburg, Virginia, first female graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute. Married Reverend Julius H. Love, an 1878 graduate of Centenary.

Reverend and Mrs. Love were parents of Dr. Edgar Amos Love.

1888: Reverend John Fletcher Hurst, Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (North), Washington Area.

1888: Reverend Francis J. Wagner, A.M., D.D., Third President of the Centenary Biblical Institute, which became Morgan College during his tenure, 1888-1901, member of the Minnesota Conference of the Methodist Church.

1878: Reverend Julius H. Love, B.D., Centenary Biblical Institute graduate of the Theological Department, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1879: Reverend Edward G. Andrews, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1888: Reverend John Wesley Edward Bowen, Ph.D., Pastored the Centennial Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, was Professor of Church History and Systematic Theology at the Centenary Biblical Institute, and a member of the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church.

1879: Reverend John F. Goucher, Ph.D, Trustee of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. Reverend Dr. and Mrs. Goucher donated a plot of land at Fulton and Edmondson for the construction of one of the Institute's early buildings.

1888: Reverend W. W. Davis, Professor at the Centenary Biblical Institute.

1879: Reverend G. G. Baker, Financial Contributor to the Centenary Biblical Institute, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1888: Reverend Samuel G. Griffin, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1888-1891.

1880: Reverend Edward Gayer Andrews, Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (North) Washington Area.

1889: Reverend Matthew W. Clair, LL.D., Trustee, 1889 Graduate of the Centenary Biblical Institute, one of the first African Americans in Methodism to achieve the Office of Bishop. His first parish was at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1880: Reverend John Alexander Holmes, Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1880-1883, father of Dr. Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, first African-American President of Morgan College.

1889: Reverend M. C. B. Mason, Ph.D, D.D., Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the Methodist Freeman’s Aid Society and Southern Education Society.

1882: Reverend Thomas B. Snowden, B.D., first to receive a Seminary Degree from Centenary Biblical Institute, appointed Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology in the Institute.

1889: Reverend Nathaniel Monroe Carroll, B.A., D.D., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1891-1896, a graduate and Trustee of Centenary Biblical Institute, and an original member of the Washington Conference at its inception in 1864

1882: Reverend William Maslin Frysinger, D.D., Second President of the Centenary Biblical Institute, 18821888.

1883: Reverend James White Dansbury, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1883-1885.

1889: Reverend George E. Curry, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, Methodist Pastor in Baltimore.

1885: Attorney Ashbie Hawkins, B.A., LL.D., Graduate of the Centenary Biblical Institute, Member of the Board of Trustees of Sharp Street Church, first African American in Maryland to run for the United States Senate.

1889: Reverend Ernest Williams, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, Methodist Pastor in Annapolis, Maryland.

1885: Reverend Edward Walters Steward Peck, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1885-1888.

1886: Reverend Joseph R. Waters, D.D., Pastor, helped to

1890: Reverend D. H. Carroll, one of the first Morgan College Trustees.

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1891: Reverend William Sampson Brooks, B.A., graduate of

Morgan College, Founder University of Liberia, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1902: Reverend John W. Haywood, Sr., Ph.D., Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1893: Reverend Frank Trigg, A.M., first Principal of Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute, a branch of the Centenary Biblical Institute at Lynchburg, Virginia. Later Reverend Trigg was Principal of the Princess Anne Academy from 1902-1910, and Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1921-1922.

1904: Reverend Earl Cranston, Jr., B.D., M.A., Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church, served as President of the Methodist Episcopal Church's Board of Education, Morgan College Trustee, 1912-1916.

1905: Reverend William Alfred C. Hughes, Sr., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church 1905-1912, 1897 graduate of Morgan College, and the father of Morgan Football, Bishop, Central Jurisdictional Conference of the Methodist Church.

1895: Attorney George F. McMechen, B.A., J.D., awarded first baccalaureate degree from Morgan College, and first African American on the Baltimore Board of School Commissioners 1944-1950. He was a member of the Morgan Corporation, and a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees. A building on the campus is named in his honor.

1905: Reverend W. L. Hubbard, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, District Superintendent, Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church.

1905: Miss Cornelia Wilson, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, teacher in the Baltimore Colored High School.

1896: Reverend Daniel W. Hayes, D.D., Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1896-1899.

1897: Mrs. Portia Bird, wife of Reverend Benjamin O. Bird, Principal and teacher at the Princess Anne Academy 1897-1899.

1905: Miss Meta Redden, B.A., graduate of Centenary Biblical Institute, teacher in Baltimore public schools.

1907: Reverend William F. Anderson, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1899: Reverend Pezavia O'Connell, Ph.D., Principal of the Princess Anne Academy, Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church.

1908: Reverend Edward Holt Hughes, A.B., A.M., Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (North) Washington Area.

1889: Reverend Hampton C. Kispaugh, graduate of the Centenary Biblical Institute.

1910: Reverend George E. Stevens, Principal of the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute at Lynchburg, Virginia.

1899: Reverend Alfred Young, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1899-1901. His daughter, Dr. Louise Young, was the first African-American woman to practice medicine in Maryland, and she served as the women’s physician at Morgan College.

1913: Miss Harriett A. Woolford, B.A., Graduate of Morgan College, Teacher at the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute, 1913-1917. The Lynchburg branch was destroyed by fire in 1917. Miss Woolford was responsible for rescuing students from the fire. Woolford Infirmary is named in her honor.

1899: Reverend McHenry J. Naylor, B.A., M.Div., D.D., Morgan College graduate, Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church 1912-1921, Bishop, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. Estate sale enabled the Christian Center.

1915: Reverend Lee Marcus McCoy, B.A., M.A., Litt.D., Principal of the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute at Lynchburg.

1900: Reverend David H. Hargis, B.A., Morgan College graduate. Reverend David and Mrs. Hattie W. Hargis were Morgan Christian Center benefactors.

1915: Reverend William Pickens, A.B., A.M.,L itt.D., Dean of Morgan College, 1915-1920, NAACP Field Secretary.

1916: Reverend William Frazer McDowell, A.B., STB., Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (North), Washington Area.

1901: Reverend Isaac L. Thomas, B.D., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1901-1905. He entered Centenary Biblical Institute in 1878 and joined the Washington Conference in 1882.

1917: Reverend Walter E. Stanley, B.A., Morgan College Graduate, District Superintendent of the Methodist Church, Peninsula Conference. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1901: Reverend Charles Edmund Young, B.A., M.A., D.D.,

Dean and Acting President of Morgan College, Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church.

1920: Dr. Edward N. Wilson, B.A., Morgan College graduate, Methodist Lay Leader and the delegate to General Conferences, member of the Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church, served in the Office of the Morgan College Registrar 1921-1963, and author of The History of Morgan State College: A Century of Purpose in Action 1867-1967 published in 1975.

1901: Reverend Ernest Lyon, Professor of Church History at Morgan College, U. S. Minister to Liberia 1903-1910, then Minister of Ames Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore.

1902: Dr. John Oakley Spencer, PhD., LL.D, Fourth President of Morgan College, 1902-1937, Member of the Baltimore Conference.

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1922: Reverend Charles W. Baldwin, D.D., Chairman,

Morgan College Board of Trustees Board of Trustees.

Baldwin Hall is named in his honor.

Biblical Institute, and Reverend Julius H. Love, an 1878 graduate of Centenary, and Sharp Street pastor. Bishop Love was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1926: Reverend Kelly L. Jackson, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church, 1943-1947 and 1962-1967. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1960: Reverend John Wesley Lord, A.B., B.D., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area.

1926: Reverend Noah W. Moore, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, Bishop, Methodist Church, Houston, Texas.

1965: Reverend John Richard Bryant, B.A., M.Th., D.Min., graduate of Morgan State College, Senior Bishop and Presiding Prelate of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

1929: Reverend Arthur J. Payne, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, Minister and Civic Leader.

1967: Reverend Forrest C. Stith, B.S., M.Div., D.D., Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church from 19671970, Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area, 1984-1996.

1930: Reverend Edward Gonzalez Carroll, B.A.,M.Div., LL.D., D.D., graduate of Morgan College, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church, 1955-1962, Bishop of the Methodist Church, 1972. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees and Director of the Morgan Christian Center, 1991.

1972: Reverend James Kenneth Matthews, B.A., D.Min., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area.

1936: Reverend James Henry Straughn, B.A., D.D., LL.D., Bishop, President of the Methodist General Conference.

1980: Reverend David Frederick Wertz, B.A., M.A., D.Th., Bishop, United Methodist Church.

1937: Dr. Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ph.D., 19371948., Fifth President of Morgan College. Morgan College’s first African-American President, he was the son of Reverend John Alexander Holmes, Pastor of Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1880-1883. He was a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1984: Dr. Earl Stanford Richardson, B.S., M.S., Ed.D., 1984 -2010, Eleventh President of Morgan State University , member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1984: Reverend Joseph Hughes Yeakel, A.B., M.Div., S.T.D., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area, 1984-1996, member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1939: Reverend Seth G. Edwards, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, President of Cuttington College and Divinity School, Monrovia, Liberia.

1988: Reverend Susan M. Morrison, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference.

1939: Reverend Robert M. Powell, B.A., graduate of Morgan College, Minister and Civic Leader.

1996: Reverend Felton Edwin May, B.A., D.D., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Washington Area, 19962004.

1940: Reverend William Alfred Carroll Hughes, Pastor, Sharp Street Memorial Church, 1905-1912, Bishop of the Methodist Church (Central Jurisdiction), Baltimore Area.

2004: Reverend John Roland Schol, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference, 2004-2012.

1940: Reverend Alexander Preston Shaw, A.B., B.D.,D.D., Bishop, Methodist Church (Central Jurisdiction), Baltimore Area, from 1940-1952. He was the first African -American Bishop to preside full time over a predominantly white Annual Conference: the Southern California-Arizona Conference in 1950. He was a member of of the Board of Trustees of the Morgan Christian Center.

2008: Reverend Peggy Johnson, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference.

2012: Reverend Marcus Matthews, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., Bishop, United Methodist Church, Northeast Conference, 2012-2016.

1944: Reverend Charles Wesley Flint, B.D., Ph.D., Bishop, Methodist Church (Northeast Jurisdiction) Washington Area.

2016: Reverend LaTrelle Easterling, B.A., LL.D., M.Div., First Female Bishop, Baltimore-Washington Conference.

1948: Dr. Martin David Jenkins, B.S., B.A., M.A. Ph.D.,

LL.D., Sixth President of Morgan State College, 19481970, a member of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees.

1952: Reverend Edgar Amos Love, D.D., L.L.D., 1909 graduate of Morgan College, Bishop, Methodist Church (Central Jurisdiction), Baltimore Area. He was the son of Mrs. Susie Carr Love, first female graduate of Centenary

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Pastors of The Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church 1832:

Reverend Richard C. Lyons

1912-1921:

Reverend McHenry J. Naylor

1860:

Reverend James H. Harper

1921-1922:

Reverend Charles Y. Trigg

1864:

Reverend Benjamin Brown, Sr.

1922-1926:

Reverend William H. Dean

1864-1865:

Reverend John Mars

1926-1930:

Reverend Walter A. English

1865-1866:

Reverend James H. Harper

1930-1933:

Reverend John W. Waters

1866-1867:

Reverend John H. Brice

1933-1942:

Reverend Robert F. Coates

1867-1868:

Reverend Warner Cook

1942-1943:

Reverend Herbert A. Green

1868-1869:

Reverend James O. Peck

1943-1947:

Reverend Kelly L. Jackson

1869-1870:

Reverend Thomas Davis

1947-1955:

Reverend Joshua O. Williams

1870-1873:

Reverend Robert H. Robinson

1955-1962:

Reverend Edward Gonzalez Carroll

1873-1876:

Reverend Perry G. Walker

1962-1967:

Reverend Kelly L. Jackson

1876-1877:

Reverend Henry A. Carroll

1967-1970:

Reverend Forrest C. Stith

1877-1880:

Reverend Charles G. Key

1970-1977:

Reverend Richard L. Clifford

1880-1883:

Reverend John A. Holmes

1977-1985:

Reverend John Wesley Coleman

1883-1885:

Reverend James W. Dansbury

1985-1988:

Reverend Eugene Matthews

1885-1888:

Reverend Edward Walters Steward Peck

1988-1991:

Reverend Charles Albert Johnson

1888-1891:

Reverend Samuel G. Griffin

1992-1994:

Reverend Robert Doulas Force

1891-1896:

Reverend Nathaniel N. M. Carroll

1994-2000:

Reverend Bruce F. Haskins

1896-1899:

Reverend Daniel W. Hayes

2000-2003:

Reverend James Allen Bishop

1899-1901:

Reverend Alfred Young

2003:

Reverend Leonard Felton

1901-1905:

Reverend Isaac L. Thomas

2005-2012:

Reverend Dellyne I. Hinton

1905-1912:

Reverend William Alfred C. Hughes, Sr.

2012-Present: Reverend Raphael K. Koikoi, Jr.

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Members of the Morgan Christian Center Board of Trustees, 1950-2008 Dr. Clara I. Adams Dr. Richard T. Adams Mr. Lloyd M. Alston Reverend B. Franklin Auld Reverend Howard A. Bailey Dr. Percy H. Baker Attorney Ludlow H. Baldwin Reverend J. Thoburn Bard Reverend Marion C. Bascom Dr. Otto Begus Reverend Paul E. Bohi Reverend H. D. Bollinger Reverend Harold Bosley Mrs. Catherine Burks Dr. Winfred O. Bryson, Jr. Dr. Vivien T. Burnett Dr. Eugene D. Byrd, Sr. Dr. Charles L. Carrington Bishop Edward Gonzalez Carroll Mr. James H. Carter Honorable Joseph L. Carter Bishop Matthew W. Clair Mrs. Virginia B. Coleman Reverend Jervis Cook Reverend Howard L. Cornish Dr. Jean Creek Mr. Herbert C. Cullison Mr. James Johnson Reverend Richard Johnson Reverend John Bayley Jones Attorney Lena K. Lee Reverend Lawrence Livingston Dr. Irvin C. Lockman Bishop John Wesley Lord Bishop Edgar A. Love Dr. William Lupton Dr. Roland C. McConnell Dr. Richard I. McKinney Attorney George W. F. McMechen Attorney Elwood W. Melson Reverend Levi Brawner Miller State Senator Clarence Mitchell State Senator Juanita Jackson Mitchell Reverend Noah W. Moore State Senator Louise G. Murphy Reverend J. H. Nutter Reverend Arthur J. Payne Reverend J. H. Peters Mr. Garrett D. Rawlings Mr. Rudolph Redd, Jr. Bishop Ernest G. Richard Dr. Earl S. Richardson Reverend John J. Seabrook Bishop Alexander Preston Shaw

Miss Ida R. Cummings Father Michael B. Curry Reverend M. S. Davage Dr. Carrington L. Davis Reverend W. W. Delaplain Dr. A. Merritt Dietterich Dr. Nina Dobson-Hopkins Dr. Vernon N. Dobson Dr. Mary Alice Douty Dr. Edgar D. Draper Mr. William F. Dunkle Dr. Mary A. D. Edwards Dr. Herbert O. Edwards Attorney William I. Gosnell Prof. Dale Glenwood Green Mr. Edgar Green Reverend Davis H. Hargis Dr. Leah Hasty Mr. Elmer T. Hawkins Dr. Lucia S. Hawthorne Mr. James . Hepbron Dr. Dwight O. Holmes Reverend Kelly L. Jackson Dr. Martin D. Jenkins Mr. Larry E. Jennings Mrs. Brenda Johnson-Miller Mrs. Elizabeth F. Johnson Mr. George I. Sims Honorable Morris A. Soper Dr. John O. Spencer Mr. Herbert M. St. Clair Reverend Walter E. Stanley Dr. Charles W. Stills, Jr. Miss Alice G. Taylor Dr. Fannette H. Thomas Mr. James S. Thomas Attorney Roszel C. Thomsen Mrs. Patricia Tunstall Mrs. Rita B. Turner Mr. H. Milston Wagner Mr. Herbert Walker Dr. William A. Warfield Honorable Thomas J. S. Waxter Dr. H. D. Webb Mr. James R. Webb Reverend DePriest Whye Reverend Frank L. Williams Mr. and Mrs. James Williams Mr. Willard A. Williams Mr. Earl N. Wilson Mr. William Winchester Bishop Joseph Hughes Yeakel Reverend Dr. Mary Jo Zimmerli

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Directors of the Morgan Christian Center 1941 - 2008 1941-1944: Reverend John Jarvis Seabrook, B.A., L.L.D., L.L.M. 1944-1976: Reverend Howard Lee Cornish, B.A., M.A., Litt.D. 1976-1980: Reverend Quincy Darnell Cooper, A.B., S.T.B., S.T.M., D.Min. 1980-1981: Reverend Dr. Richard I. McKinney, B.D., S.T.M., Ph.D. 1981-1983: Reverend Robert Douglas Force, B.A., M.Div., M.S.W., M.Legal Studies 1983-1984: Bishop Edward G. Carroll, B.A., M.Div., L.L.D., D.D. 1985-1987: Reverend Richard Ross Hicks, B.S., M.Div. 1987-1987: Reverend Donald Matthews, B.S., M.A., Ph.D. 1987-1990: Reverend Frank Leviticus Williams, A.B., B.D. 1990-1991: Reverend Frank Ellis Drumwright, B.A., M.Div. 1992-1994: Reverend Herbert O. Edwards, A.B., S.T.D., Ph.D. 1995-1997: Reverend Douglas B. Sands, A.B., M.Div., S.T.D. 1997-2001: Reverend Marion Bascom, B.A., B.Div., D.D. 2001-2003: Reverend Richard T. Adams, B.A., M.Div., D.D. 2003-2005: Reverend John Carter, B.A., M.Div., D.Div. 2005-2008: Reverend Barbara Wilkes, B.A., M.Div., D.Div.

Director of the Morgan State University Memorial Chapel 2008-Present: Reverend Bernard Keels, Dean of the Chapel, B.A., M.Div., D.Div.

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Morgan State University Memorial Chapel Campus Chaplains & Ministerial Associates 2008 — 2016 Reverend Dr. Bernard Keels, Dean of the Chapel

Imam Derrick Amin, Campus Muslim Association Imam Montaserbillah Badawi, Muslim Association Deacon Wardell Barksdale, Roman Catholic Ministry Reverend Neva Brown, Espiscopal/Anglican Ministry Mrs. Tambra E. Chisolm, Pastoral Care Intern Reverend Walter Jones, Ministerial Associate Reverend D. Stewart Mott, Apostolic Ministry Reverend Dr. Daniel Murray, Ministerial Associate Father Joseph Muth, Roman Catholic Club Elder Jacqueline Pressey, Ministerial Associate Mr. Reggie Price, Lutheran Campus Ministeries Mr. Abnet Shiferaw, Intervarsity Campus Ministries Ms. Vickie Stewart, Baptist Student Club

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Friends of the University Memorial Chapel 2011-2016 Dr. Clara I. Adams

Dr. Melanie Moser

Dr. Richard T. Adams

Mr. Samuel Oforp

Reverend Kevin Andre Brooks

Dr. Evelyn Perry

Reverend Neva Brown

Dr. Kevin Peters

Dr. Agnes Edwards

Mrs. Beverly Reid

Professor Dale Glenwood Green

Dr. Leonard Simmons

Mrs. Sandra Higgins

Mr. Samir Taylor

Mr. Warren J. Howze

Mr. James L. Tibbs

Judge Norman E. Johnson, Jr.

Ms. Chynae Walker

Ms. Lolita Kelson

Dr. Joseph A. Whittaker

Mr. Arturo Lawson

Dr. Flossie E. Windley

Mrs. Jackie Lawson

Dr. Edmonia Yates

Mr. Tommy Lyons

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A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION AND ITS LEADERS

Sharp Street Church, 1860-1898, where classes were held, 1867-1872

Sharp Street Church, 1802-1860

Old Lovely Lane Church, home of many members of the Founding Board of Trustees

Sharp Street Church, 1898-Present

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The Peyton Property, 44 Saratoga Street, location of CBI from 1872 to 1881

Fulton and Edmondson Avenues, location of CBI from 1881-1917

Princess Anne Academy branch of CBI, 1886-1935

Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute CBI branch in Lynchburg, Virginia, 1891-1917

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The Ivy Mill Property, location of Morgan College, 1917 to present . . . the campus that was a farm

Campus Building, 1911-1912

Washington Hall (Renovated Ivy Mill Hotel) named for the Washington Conference, 1917

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The Stone Barn covered and filled in for new entrance to campus, 1918

Bellview Hall on the Morton Estate, 1919

Carnegie Hall, 1919

New Entrance to the Campus 1921 “The Love, the joy, the small, and the great, will forever be a part of us after we part the gate.”

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Jackson Street Methodist Episcopal Church Lynchburg, Virginia, 1866-

Morgan Christian Center on M. J. Naylor property, 1941

Susie Carr Love Chapel 1941

44

Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church Princess Anne, Maryland, 1886

Aerial View of Morgan State College 1960s

Welcome Bridge (1964), McMechen Hall (1972), Holmes Hall (1949)

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Rev. Harry Hosier First African-American Methodist Preacher, 1750-1806

Frederick Douglass Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church

Dr. I. L. Scruggs Founder, Gamma Chapter, Phi Beta Sigma, 1919

Rev. Joseph R. S. Waters Pastor, Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, 1886

Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley Delaware Conference 1887

Rev. Dr. Perzavia P. O’Connell Princess Anne Academy 1899-1902

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Rev. Samuel Green, Sr. Washington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church

Rev. Benjamin O. Bird Princess Anne Academy 1886-1897

Rev. Thomas H. Kiah Princess Anne Academy 1910-1936

Professor Frank J. Trigg, Jr. Virginia Collegiate & Industrial Institute 1893-1895, 1910-1916

Bishop William Alfred Carroll Hughes Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church 1905-1912

Rev. Dr. McHenry Jeremiah Naylor Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church

Rev. Lyttleton F. Morgan Second Board Chairman 1876-1886

Rev. John A. Holmes Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church 1880-1883

Bishop Forrest Stith 1967-1970

Rev. Dr. Richard I. McKinney Founder of the Philosophy Department 1951

Rev. Howard L Cornish Director, Morgan Christian Center 1944-1976

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Presidents of the Institution

Rev. John Emory Round, D.D. 1872—1882

Rev. William Maslin Frysinger, D.D. 1882—1888

Francis J. Wagner, D.D. 1888—1901

John Oakley Spencer, Ph.D., L.L.D. 1902—1937

Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ph.D., L.L.D. 1937—1948

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Presidents of the Institution

King Vergil Cheek, J.D., L.L.D. 1971—1974

Martin David Jenkins, Ph.D., L.L.D. 1948—1970

Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D. 1975—1984

Earl S. Richardson, Ed.D., L.L.D. 1984—2010

David Wilson, Ed.D. 2010—Present

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Carl J. Murphy First African-American Board Chair 1953-1967

James H. Carter Assistant to the President

Susie Carr Love First Female Graduate of CBI, 1878

Enolia P. McMillan First Female Board Chair 1975-1976

George C. Grant Dean of the College

George W. F. McMechen First Graduate of Morgan College, 1895

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Hon. Kweisi Mfume Current Board Chair 2013-Present

Edward N. Wilson Registrar and Historian

W. Ashbie Hawkins Class of 1881

51

References and Acknowledgements

W

e are grateful for the assistance provided to us in compiling this chronology and acknowledge the liberal use of archival records and information. We regret any errors or omissions and welcome corrections and additions as we strive for accuracy and excellence. We were assisted in our work by: The Archives of the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church.

Dorothy M. Dougherty, Sharp Street Memorial UM Church, Dedicated To The New Millennium, The Church Is the Body of Christ: An Historical Overview of People Places, and Events, compiled in 2001. Mrs. Dorothy Dougherty is Church Historian at Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church.

Mrs. Zella T. Washington, “A History of Sharp Street Church,” compiled in 1952.

The Beulah M. Davis Special Collections at the Earl S. Richardson Library at Morgan State University.

Robert W. Shindle, Director of the Lovely Lane Museum and Archives.

Mrs. Joyce White, Archives Associate at the Lovely Lane Museum and Archives.

Reverend Dr. Emora T. Brennan, Historian at the Lovely Lane Museum and Archives.

General Commission on Archives and History, Timeline of United Methodist History, 1703-1996.

Dr. Irvin C. Lockman, The Morgan Christian Center, Footprints of a Dream, 1997.

The Morgan Christian Center Bulletin, Addresses Delivered at the Dedicatory Exercises of the Morgan Christian Center, December 16, 1941, Reprinted Commemorating the 50th Anniversary, 1991.

Minutes and Journal Proceedings of the Washington Annual Conference, October 27-31, 1864.

Journal of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1864.

Benjamin Quarles, Frederick Douglas, 1948.

Reverend Dr. Horace L. Wallace, Editor, Celebrating the Past, Envisioning the Future, Former Washington Conference, A Chronological Account of the Washington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, August 2006.

Marilyn Southard Warshawsky, John Franklin Goucher: Citizen Of The World, 2016.

Edward N. Wilson, The History of Morgan State College: A Century of Purpose in Action, 1867-1967, Vantage Press, 1975.

In addition, we acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the Morgan researchers, writers and designers who are responsible for this publication. They include Ms. Simone Barrett (Administrative Specialist, Center for Civil Rights in Education), Prof. Dale Glenwood Green (Assistant Professor of Architecture), Dr. Burney J. Hollis (Professor of English and Dean Emeritus), Mr. Warren J. Howze (Centennial Class of 1967), Dr. Edwin Johnson (Assistant Archivist) and Dr. Ida Jones (Archivist).

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