February is Black History Month and Jazzy 88.9 WCSU is paying tribute to the many African-Americans who have made a difference in the Miami Valley. Today we salute Daniel Alexander Payne, an African-American Bishop, educator, college administrator and author who was a major contributor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Payne stressed education and preparation of ministers and introduced more order in the church. He became Bishop serving more than four decades as well as becoming the founder of Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856. A year later the A.M.E church bought the college and chose Payne to lead it. In the same period he became the first African-American President of a college in the United States and served that position until 1877.
The A.M.E. church had to invest in the college when buildings were damaged by fire from a Southern sympathizer. Payne helped organize funding and rebuilding and U.S Congress passed a $25,000 grant for the college to aid in rebuilding. While serving as Bishop, Daniel Payne gained 200,000 new members for the A.M.E church during the Reconstruction Era by quickly organizing missionary support of Freedmen In The South after the Civil War. The Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio is named in his honor.
This Black History tribute is brought to you by your Miami Valley Jazz Authority, Jazzy 88.9 WCSU.
