Curtis Cummings

Flipper, 33rd bishop of the A. M. E. Church, the second of five sons of Festus and Isabella (Buckhalter) Flipper, was born February 22, 1859, in Atlanta, Georgia, a slave of Ephraim G. Ponder. In 1867 he attended a missionary school in Bethel A. M. E. church, Atlanta, and Storrs school. In October, 1869, he was numbered among the first students to enter the Atlanta University, where he remained until 1876, when he entered public life, teaching school at Thomaston, Ga. He went to Thomasville, where his parents had gone, in 1877. Here he was converted in March, 1877, and joined St. Thomas A. M. E. church under Rev. S. W. Drayton. In 1877 and 1878 he taught school in Thomas county. In 1879 he was commissioned by Governor Alfred H. Colquitt, captain of the Thomasville Independents, a colored company, forming a part of the State militia. In 1879 he taught school at Groverville, now Key, Brooks County, Georgia. Here he was licensed both as an exhorter and local preacher and recommended by the local church for admission into the Georgia annual conference of the A. M. E. church, and in January, 1880, he was received into the itinerant ministry of the Georgia conference at Americus, Georgia, by Bishop Campbell, and assigned to Groversville circuit; served Boston circuit 1881. He was ordained deacon in January, 1882, by Bishop Dickerson in St. Thomas A. M. E. church, Thomasville, Georgia. Here also he was elected secretary of the Georgia conference, and a trustee of Morris Brown College; was appointed to Darien, Georgia, in 1882. In 1883 he taught school at Cairo and Whigham, Georgia. In January, 1884, he was ordained elder at Valdosta, Georgia, by Bishop Dickerson and appointed to Quitman, Georgia, remaining there until January, 1886, when at the conference at Hawkinsville, Georgia, he was transferred from the Georgia conference to the North Georgia conference by Bishop Shorter, and appointed to Bethel A. M. E. church, Atlanta, the largest church in the State. He was the youngest man that had ever been appointed to so important a charge in the State. His mother had been a member of this church and he had attended its Sunday school when a boy, and in the old church had first learned his alphabet. He remained here four years, the full limit of the law, and raised more dollar money than had ever been raised in any church in the entire State. No other pastor exceeded his record for 25 years. From here he was appointed pastor of Pierce chapel, A. M. E. church, Athens, Georgia, in 1889, and remained three years. In 1892 he was appointed by Bishop Grant, presiding elder of the Athens district. In 1895 he was appointed pastor of St. Paul A. M. E. church, Atlanta, serving four years. In 1903 he was elected dean of the theological department of Morris Brown College and served one year. In 1904 he was elected by the Trustee Board president of Morris Brown College and enrolled the largest number of students in its history. He remained here four years. In 1908 at the general conference held in Norfolk, Virginia, he was elected one of the bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal church and assigned to the ninth Episcopal district, consisting of Arkansas and Oklahoma. He traveled very extensively through these two States, going from ten to twenty-five miles from the railroad. In 1912 when the general conference met in Kansas City, Missouri, the delegation from Georgia, his native State, requested that he be sent to preside over Georgia, the sixth Episcopal district, which request was granted. Since coming to Georgia he has erected the Flipper Hall, the boys’ dormitory at Morris Brown College, the Central Park Normal and Industrial Institute at Savannah, bought ten acres of ground for Payne College at Cuthbert, Georgia, and united all the schools into one system known as Morris Brown University. Bishop Flipper received the degree of D.D. from Allen University in 1893 and LL.D. from Wilberforce University in 1906. He has been a member of every general conference since 1892, and was chairman of the Episcopal Committee of the General Conferences of 1900 and 1904. He served as a member of the Financial Board from 1900 to 1908. He was married to Miss Amanda Slater, of Thomasville, Ga., February 24, 1880. One of his sons is a minister, Rev. Carl F. Flipper, a graduate of Shaw University (A. B.), and Drew Theological Seminary (B.D.), and a member of the New Jersey annual conference. Bishop Flipper is a stockholder in the Standard Life Insurance Company, and holds the first policy, for three thousand dollars, issued by the company; a stockholder and director of the Atlanta State savings bank, a stockholder in The Independent of New York City, a member of the Southern Sociological Congress, a member of the National Geographical Society, a trustee of the World’s Christian Endeavor, president of the Sunday school Union Board, and prominent in many civic and industrial movements.

He died October 10, 1944.