Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne

A leader of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church for more than half a century, Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne contributed substantially to its growth and advocated for the formal education of its clergy. A free person of color, Payne opened a school for African Americans in Charleston in 1828, but was forced to close it in 1834 when South Carolina outlawed the education of blacks. Moving to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Payne became the first African American minister ordained by the Franckean Evangelical Lutheran Synod (1839). He joined the A.M.E. Church in 1841 and although some members of that denomination opposed his call for a standardized course of study for its ministers, his viewpoint prevailed, and he was elected a bishop in 1852. After purchasing Ohio’s Wilberforce University in 1863, Payne served as president of the nation’s first African American–administered institution of higher learning.