Bishop Richard Allen

Richard Allen was born into slavery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 14, 1760. At the age of 17, he converted to Methodism after hearing a white travelling Methodist preacher rally against slavery. His owner, who had already sold Richard's mother and three siblings, also converted and eventually allowed Richard and his brother to purchase their freedom for $2,000 each. After attaining his freedom, Richard took the last name "Allen" and he worked at odd jobs, as a shoemaker and as manager of a chimney-sweeping company, in Philadelphia.

Allen joined St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, where blacks and whites worshiped together. There, he became an assistant minister and conducted prayer meetings for blacks. In 1787, frustrated with the limitations the church placed on him and black members, Allen left the church with the intention of creating an independent Methodist church.

That same year, Allen founded the Free African Society, a non-denominational religious society dedicated to helping the black community. In 1794, he and 10 other black Methodists founded the Bethel Church, in an old blacksmith’s shop. Bethel Church became known as "Mother Bethel" because it birthed the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen helped to hide escaped slaves. The basement of the Bethel Church was a stop on the "Underground Railroad" for blacks fleeing slavery.

In 1799, Allen became the first African American to be ordained in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Then in 1816, he founded the first national black church in the United States, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and became its first bishop. Today, the Church boasts more than 2.5 million members.

In 1830, Bishop Allen formed the Free Produce Society, where members would only purchase products from non-slave labor. With a vision of equal treatment for all, he railed against slavery, influencing civil rights leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr.

Bishop Richard Allen died at home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1831. He was buried at Mother Bethel and his grave remains on the lower level.