Harris, Barbara Clementine

Jones, Absalom

1746-1818

First African American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church; founded the first Black Episcopal congregation in the United States

Crummell, Alexander

1819-1898

Became one of the first Black Americans ordained an Episcopal priest, founded St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. — the first independent Black Episcopal congregation in the city — and in 1897 co-founded the American Negro Academy, the first major organization supporting Black scholarship in America

McKenzie, Vashti Murphy

1947-present

Became the first woman elected bishop in the more than 200-year history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2000, later becoming the first woman to serve as Titular Head of the denomination and, in 2021, President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches

Hall, Prathia LauraAnn

1940-2002

Credited as the originator of the phrase “I have a dream,” spoken during a 1962 prayer vigil that Martin Luther King Jr. attended and later asked her permission to echo in his own preaching, while serving as one of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's first female field secretaries and later becoming a pioneering Baptist minister and womanist theologian