Richard Allen (bishop)

Richard Allen (February 14, 1760 – March 26, 1831) was a minister, educator, writer, and one of America's most active and influential black leaders. In 1794 he founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent black denomination in the United States. He opened his first AME church in 1794 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Elected the first bishop of the AME Church in 1816, Allen focused on organizing a denomination where free blacks could worship without racial oppression and where slaves could find a measure of dignity. He worked to upgrade the social status of the black community, organizing Sabbath schools to teach literacy and promoting national organizations to develop political strategies.

Early life and freedom

Richard Allen was born into slavery on February 14, 1760, on the Delaware property of Benjamin Chew. When he was a child Allen and his family were sold to Stokeley Sturgis, who had a plantation in Delaware. When Sturgis had financial problems he sold Richard's mother and three of his five siblings. Allen had an older brother and sister left with him and the three began to attend meetings of the local Methodist Society, which was welcoming to slaves and free blacks. They were encouraged by their master Sturgis, although he was unconverted. Richard taught himself to read and write. He joined the Methodists at age 17. He began evangelizing and attracted criticism from local slave owners. Allen and his brother redoubled their efforts for Sturgis so no one could say his slaves did not do well because of religion.

Richard Allen

Richard, Rick, or Dick Allen may refer to:

Artists

Athletes

Musicians

Richard Allen (field hockey)

Richard James Allen (4 June 1902 – 1969) was an Indian field hockey player who competed in the Summer Olympics in 1928, 1932, and 1936. He was born in Nagpur, India, and did his schooling from the prestigious Oak Grove School, Mussoorie and later at St.Joseph's College, Nainital.

In the 1928 Summer Olympics, he played five matches as goalkeeper, and no goals were scored against him. Four years later, he played one match against United States as goalkeeper. The American team scored one goal against him, while he was off the field signing autographs (the final score was 24-1 in India's favour, a world record at that time). In the 1936 Summer Olympics he played four matches as goalkeeper. One goal was scored against him. This tally of conceding only two goals over three Olympic games remains an Olympic record to this day.

External links

Richard Allen (politician)

Richard Alexander Allen (born February 10, 1929) is an historian and former politician in Ontario, Canada. He sat as a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1982 to 1995, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.

Background

Allen was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto, a Master's Degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a Ph.D. from Duke University. He was a professor at the University of Regina from 1964 to 1974 where he initiated interdisciplinary prairie studies and founded the Canadian Plans Research Centre. He taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario as senior Canadian historian from 1974 to 1987. He and his wife Nettie have two children.

Historian

Allen's career began with history and he specialized in Christian socialism within Canada. In 1971, he published a work entitled The Social Passion, chronicling the history of the Canadian social gospel from the 1890s to 1929. In the book he proposed that the social gospel supplied the reform movement with a type of ideology. He said it ultimately failed because the concept translated poorly between English and Canadian society and that the structure of the churches did not lend itself to promoting social change. The book was criticized because it focused too strongly on central Canada and ignored trends in the Maritimes and Western Canada.