Today is a great day to honor the life of Rt. Rev. Richard Allen, founder and first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was one of the most active Black leaders of the U.S., as a n abolitionist, pastor, educator, writer, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Born a slave in Delaware in 1760, he was sold as a child to a plantation owner in Philadelphia, where he taught himself to read and write. That owner allowed his slaves to attend church, and Allen became an evangelist as a child. He worked on his own time for 5 years to buy his own freedom. Then Francis Asbury ordained him in 1799, and he became a preacher at St. George’s Methodist Church. But that church’s segregation practices and growing racial tension prompted him to lead 40 others and walk out of that church.

Allen built and opened the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in America, Mother Bethel AME Church,  in 1799 in Philadelphia. It included a tunnel to the Arch Street Friends Meeting House, and became part of the Underground Railroad. In 1816, he brought together other AME congregations in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, and was elected their Bishop.

Richard Allen also co-founded the Free African Society, a civic organization that held Sabbath schools to teach literacy and financial education, helped people find work and homes, and spearheaded major community projects. He gave the majority of his life working on the Underground Railroad.