Hero of Black Church History: Daniel Alexander Payne

Historians of American history frequently emphasize our “founding fathers.” Politically speaking, they highlight white males like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and James Madison. Spiritually speaking, they feature white males such as Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards, and Isaac Backus.

Sadly, they have often left African American founding fathers missing in action. In particular, the spiritual founding fathers of independent African American church life have been neglected, relegated to the back seat of the historical bus. We now seek to recover something of the lost legacy of loving leadership bequeathed to us by African American spiritual forefathers.

Walking the Talk

Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne was an early leader in and the official historian of the AMEC. Payne experienced numerous opportunities to live out his Christian manhood. His manliness remaining strong in the twilight years of his life. When he was in his seventies, Payne refused to stay on a train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the white authorities on the train, he said to them:

“Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

After Payne left the train, “the guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.” Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South. Payne literally walked the talk.

The Rosa Parks of His Day

He was the Rosa Parks of his day. In fact, Rosa Parks worshipped at an AME church. During youth Sunday School she learned the history of the AME Church, including the history of one Daniel Alexander Payne. Thus we can trace the Civil Rights movement from Daniel Alexander Payne to Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dare to Be a Daniel

How did such Christian manhood develop? Payne credits his father who started him on his purposeful life.

“I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.”

Imagine the sense of self, the sense of biblical masculinity that Payne’s father passed to his son.

He did so not only by naming, but also by modeling. Of his father, Payne testifies:

“He was an earnest Christian and a class leader, having two classes under him—what used to be called the Seekers’ Class and the Members’ Class. He was a faithful observer of family worship; and often his morning prayers and hymns aroused me, breaking my infant sleep and slumbers.”

Join the Conversation

What impact could knowledge of an African American leader like Daniel Alexander Payne have upon Americans? African Americans? African American males?

Why do you think that the history of African American leaders like Payne is so infrequently highlighted? What could be done to reverse this pattern?

Note: This series for Black History Month is excerpted from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care. To learn more and to read a sample chapter visit Beyond the Suffering.

Tags: Beyond the Suffering, Black History Month, Daniel Alexander Payne, Rosa Parks

Christian Influences on Martin Luther King, Jr.

As Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day, few are aware of the Christians whose courageous lives influenced his life. Today we learn the rest of the story.

Rosa Parks: A Woman of Great Conviction

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement” according to the U.S. Congress. On December 1, 1955, Parks became famous for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a White passenger.

Her actions started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was one of our nation’s largest movements against racial segregation. In addition, it helped to launch Martin Luther King, Jr., who was involved with the boycott, to prominence in the Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks has had a lasting worldwide legacy.

Daniel Alexander Payne: The Rosa Parks of His Day

Seventy years earlier, Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893) engaged in a similar, but lesser-known act of civil disobedience. Had his actions been more widely reported, Payne might today be known as the “Father of the Former-Day Civil Rights Movement.”

Born to free Black parents in Charleston, South Carolina, Payne was an early leader in and the official historian for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Leaving the South in 1834, Payne studied at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, PA, and then ministered for over fifty years as a pastor, educator, and influential bishop.

Payne’s ministry returned him to the South in the twilight years of his life. When he was in his seventies, he refused to stay on a train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the White authorities on the train, he said to them, “Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

Payne describes the scene after he left the train. “The guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.”

Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South. Payne literally walked the talk. By doing so, he was the predecessor of later-day Civil Rights leaders such as Parks.

The Father of Daniel Alexander Payne: Dare to Be a Daniel

How did such courage develop in Payne’s life? Where did such conviction emanate from in his background?

Payne himself credits his father as the man who started him on his purposeful life.

“I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.”

And now you know the rest of the story.

Payne marveled at the sense of self, the sense of masculinity, that his father conveyed to him. His father did so not only by naming, but also by modeling. Of his father, Payne testifies:

“He was an earnest Christian and a class leader, having two classes under him—what used to be called the Seekers’ Class and the Members’ Class. He was a faithful observer of family worship; and often his morning prayers and hymns aroused me, breaking my infant sleep and slumbers.”

Linked by Legacy: From Payne to Parks to King

Similarly and ironically, Rosa Parks’ courage was embedded in her through her upbringing in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she was mentored during her lifelong active membership. Here she heard of the inspiring exploits of AMEC Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne. In 1995, she published her memoirs, Quiet Strength, which focused on the role that her faith played in her life. Parks also noted the impact on her life of her mother, a teacher, who home-schooled her until she was eleven.

Daniel Alexander Payne, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all lived courageous, exemplary lives of racial reconciliation. Each stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before them. We trace the legacy from Daniel’s father, to Daniel, to Rosa, and to Martin. And ultimately, to Daniel of the Bible.

Join the Conversation

Do you think we would be talking about MLK Day if not for Daniel Alexander Payne, his father, Rosa Parks, her mother, and the Bible’s Daniel?

Who has provided a spiritual legacy of courage that you have followed in your Christian life?

Note: This material is based upon the book Beyond the Suffering.

Tags: Beyond the Suffering, Daniel Alexander Payne, Martin Luther King, MLK, Rosa Parks

The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Thirty-Three: The Old Ship of Zion

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

Empowering the Flock

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the founding fathers of the Black Church was that they did not endeavor to leave a personal legacy, but a corporate one. Ministry was not about themselves, but about empowering and equipping the flock to do the work of mutual ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Truly they were fathers—birthing a family of shepherds.

Their corporate legacy produced fruit. Because of their examples, African American pastoral care has not simply been about what the pastor does for the flock, but has involved the mutual one another ministry of the flock.

“What, then is this distinct emphasis that makes a black perspective in pastoral care and counseling unique? It is the corporate nature of pastoral care and counseling in the black church. . . . The term corporate means that the care of the individual is the function of the whole community, rather than the function of the pastor or any other specially designated person who possesses specialized skills.”

On the “old ship of Zion,” there are no passengers, only crew members.

Entering the Great Family of Holy Freedom: Equipping for Family Life

Daniel Alexander Payne

On April 11, 1862, Congress passed a bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. Rev. Daniel Alexander Payne, then Bishop of the Second Episcopal District of the AMEC, visited President Lincoln to implore him to sign the bill. When Lincoln signed the bill five days later, Payne authored Welcome to the Ransomed to equip newly freed African Americans.

Using as his yardstick the Apostle Paul’s mentoring of Timothy as Timothy pastored the saints at Ephesus, Payne explains the duty of the laity.

“But foremost of all the duties which he enjoined upon the Ephesian ministry and laity were those of making ‘Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men.’”

Having stated the duty and quoted the verse, Payne painstakingly exegetes who to pray to, what to pray for, how to pray, and with what attitude to pray.

Their prayer lives inaugurated, Payne then guides them in the use of their new freedom.

“Enter the great family of Holy Freedom; not to lounge in sinful indulgence, not to degrade yourselves by vice, nor to corrupt society by licentiousness, neither to offend the laws by crime, but to the enjoyment of a well regulated liberty. . . Welcome to habits of industry and thrift—to duties of religion and piety . . .”

As a wise father, Payne teaches his children how to appropriately use their newfound freedom and growing responsibility.

His counsel ranges from the sublime (“We entreat you to never be content until you are emancipated from sin”) to the mundane (“Work, work, work!”). His advice is practical and culturally sensitive. “Permit us, also, to advise you to seek every opportunity for the cultivation of your minds. . . . Rest not till you have learned to read the Bible.

Payne reserves his most ardent counsel for parents.

“But of the children take special care. Heaven has entrusted them to you for a special purpose. What is that purpose? Not merely to eat and to drink, still less to gormandize. Not merely to dress finely in broadcloths, silks, satins, jewelry, nor to dance to the sound of the tambourine and fiddle; but to learn them how to live and how to die—to train them for great usefulness on earth—to prepare them for greater glory in heaven.”

Payne exhorts faithful parents to pass the baton of faith to faithful children who would continue the spiritual relay. In this he follows Paul’s ministry plan. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

1. African American founding fathers empowered the flock by birthing a family of shepherds. Specifically, what can church leaders today do to equip equippers?

2. What can you do to equip other believers?

Tags: Beyond the Suffering, Black Church History, Black History Month, Daniel Alexander Payne

The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Twenty-Eight: Founding Fathers of the Black Church

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

Recovering a Lost Legacy

Historians of American history frequently emphasize our “founding fathers.” Politically speaking, they highlight white males like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and James Madison. Spiritually speaking, they feature white males such as Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards, and Isaac Backus.

Sadly, they have often left African American founding fathers missing in action. In particular, the spiritual founding fathers of independent African American church life have been neglected, relegated to the back seat of the historical bus. We now seek to recover something of the lost legacy of loving leadership bequeathed to us by African American spiritual forefathers.

Daniel Alexander Payne: Walking the Talk

Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne was an early leader in and the official historian of the AMEC. Payne experienced numerous opportunities to live out his Christian manhood. His manliness remaining strong in the twilight years of his life. When he was in his seventies, Payne refused to stay on a train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the white authorities on the train, he said to them:

“Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

After Payne left the train, “the guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.” Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South. Payne literally walked the talk.

The Rosa Parks of His Day

He was the Rosa Parks of his day. In fact, Rosa Parks worshipped at an AME church.

During youth Sunday School she learned the history of the AME Church, including the history of one Daniel Alexander Payne. Thus we can trace the Civil Rights movement from Daniel Alexander Payne to Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dare to Be a Daniel

How did such Christian manhood develop? Payne credits his father who started him on his purposeful life.

“I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.”

Imagine the sense of self, the sense of biblical masculinity that Payne’s father passed to his son.

He did so not only by naming, but also by modeling. Of his father, Payne testifies:

“He was an earnest Christian and a class leader, having two classes under him—what used to be called the Seekers’ Class and the Members’ Class. He was a faithful observer of family worship; and often his morning prayers and hymns aroused me, breaking my infant sleep and slumbers.”

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

1. What impact could knowledge of an African American leader like Daniel Alexander Payne have upon Americans? African Americans? African American males?

2. Why do you think that the history of African American leaders like Payne is so infrequently highlighted? What could be done to reverse this pattern?

Daniel Alexander Payne

Tags: Beyond the Suffering, Black History Month, Daniel Alexander Payne, Rosa Parks, The Journey

Daniel Alexander Payne: The Rosa Parks of His Day

Note: You’re reading Part Two of a three-part blog mini-series honoring Martin Luther King Day. These three posts serve to introduce our upcoming Forty-Day Journey of Promise. Click here to read how that blog series will teach us life lessons from the legacy of the heroes of Black Church history.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement” according to the U.S. Congress. On December 1, 1955, Parks became famous for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a White passenger.

Her actions started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was one of our nation’s largest movements against racial segregation. In addition, it helped to launch Martin Luther King, Jr., who was involved with the boycott, to prominence in the Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks has had a lasting worldwide legacy.

Daniel Alexander Payne

Seventy years earlier, Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893) engaged in a similar, but lesser-known act of civil disobedience. Had his actions been more widely reported, Payne might today be known as the “Father of the Former-Day Civil Rights Movement.”

Born to free Black parents in Charleston, South Carolina, Payne was an early leader in and the official historian for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Leaving the South in 1834, Payne studied at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, PA, and then ministered for over fifty years as a pastor, educator, and influential bishop.

Payne’s ministry returned him to the South in the twilight years of his life. When he was in his seventies, he refused to stay on a train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the White authorities on the train, he said to them, “Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

Payne describes the scene after he left the train. “The guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.”

Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South. Payne literally walked the talk. By doing so, he was the predecessor of later-day Civil Rights leaders such as Parks.

Dare to Be a Daniel

How did such courage develop in Payne’s life? Where did such conviction emanate from in his background?

Payne himself credits his father as the man who started him on his purposeful life. “I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.” And now you know, the rest of the story.

Payne marveled at the sense of self, the sense of masculinity, that his father conveyed to him.

His father did so not only by naming, but also by modeling. Of his father, Payne testifies, “He was an earnest Christian and a class leader, having two classes under him—what used to be called the Seekers’ Class and the Members’ Class. He was a faithful observer of family worship; and often his morning prayers and hymns aroused me, breaking my infant sleep and slumbers.”

Linked by Legacy: From Payne to Parks to King

Similarly and ironically, Rosa Parks’ courage was embedded in her through her upbringing in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she was mentored during her lifelong active membership. Here she heard of the inspiring exploits of AMEC Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne. In 1995, she published her memoirs, Quiet Strength, which focused on the role that her faith played in her life. Parks also noted the impact on her life of her mother, a teacher, who home-schooled her until she was eleven.

Daniel Alexander Payne, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all lived courageous, exemplary lives of racial reconciliation. Each stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before them. We trace the legacy from Daniel’s father, to Daniel, to Rosa, to Martin.

Join the Conversation (Post Comments for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

1. Who has provided a spiritual legacy of courage that you have followed in your Christian life?

2. What legacy do you want to leave for those following behind you?

3. Do you think we would be talking about MLK Day if not for Daniel Alexander Payne and Rosa Parks?

Note: This series is based upon material from the book Beyond the Suffering. If you’d like to learn more about Beyond the Suffering, click here.

Rosa Parks

Tags: Beyond the Suffering, Daniel Alexander Payne, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, The Journey

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirty-Three: Empowering the Flock

Welcome to day thirty-three of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Thirty-Three: Empowering the Flock[1]

Perhaps the founding fathers’ greatest legacy was that they did not endeavor to leave a personal legacy, but a corporate one. Ministry was not about themselves, but about empowering and equipping the flock to do the work of mutual ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16). Truly they were fathers—birthing a family of shepherds.

Their corporate legacy produced fruit. Because of their examples, African American pastoral care has not simply been about what the pastor does for the flock, but has involved the mutual one another ministry of the flock. “What, then is this distinct emphasis that makes a black perspective in pastoral care and counseling unique? It is the corporate nature of pastoral care and counseling in the black church. . . . The term corporate means that the care of the individual is the function of the whole community, rather than the function of the pastor or any other specially designated person who possesses specialized skills.” On the “old ship of Zion,” there are no passengers, only crew members.

Entering the Great Family of Holy Freedom: Equipping for Family Life

On April 11, 1862, Congress passed a bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. Rev. Payne, then Bishop of the Second Episcopal District of the AMEC, visited President Lincoln to implore him to sign the bill. When Lincoln signed the bill five days later, Payne authored Welcome to the Ransomed to equip newly freed African Americans.

Using as his yardstick the Apostle Paul’s mentoring of Timothy as Timothy pastored the saints at Ephesus, Payne explains the duty of the laity. “But foremost of all the duties which he enjoined upon the Ephesian ministry and laity were those of making ‘Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men.’”

Having stated the duty and quoted the verse, Payne painstakingly exegetes who to pray to, what to pray for, how to pray, and with what attitude to pray.

Their prayer lives inaugurated, Payne then guides them in the use of their new freedom. “Enter the great family of Holy Freedom; not to lounge in sinful indulgence, not to degrade yourselves by vice, nor to corrupt society by licentiousness, neither to offend the laws by crime, but to the enjoyment of a well regulated liberty. . . Welcome to habits of industry and thrift—to duties of religion and piety . . .” As a wise father, Payne teaches his children how to appropriately use their newfound freedom and growing responsibility.

His counsel ranges from the sublime (“We entreat you to never be content until you are emancipated from sin”) to the mundane (“Work, work, work!”). His advice is practical and culturally sensitive. “Permit us, also, to advise you to seek every opportunity for the cultivation of your minds. . . . Rest not till you have learned to read the Bible.

Payne reserves his most ardent counsel for parents. “But of the children take special care. Heaven has entrusted them to you for a special purpose. What is that purpose? Not merely to eat and to drink, still less to gormandize. Not merely to dress finely in broadcloths, silks, satins, jewelry, nor to dance to the sound of the tambourine and fiddle; but to learn them how to live and how to die—to train them for great usefulness on earth—to prepare them for greater glory in heaven.”
Payne exhorts faithful parents to pass the baton of faith to faithful children who would continue the spiritual relay. In this he follows Paul’s ministry plan. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. African American founding fathers empowered the flock by birthing a family of shepherds. Specifically, what can church leaders today do to equip equippers?

2. What can you do to equip other believers?

[1]Excerpted from, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.