11th Bishop
John Mifflin Brown
Brown Chapel AME Church was named after Bishop John Mifflin Brown. The congregation was admitted to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867 and Bishop Brown held the first Alabama Conference for the AME Church in 1868.
He was the first Principal of Union Seminary, 1847, which became Wilberforce University.
- Birth Date: September 8, 1817
- Consecration Date: May 25, 1868 (served 19 years)
- Death Date: June 1894
- Spouse: Mary Louise Lewis (m. 1852)
Brown was born in Cantwell’s Bridge New Castle County, DE on September 8, 1817. He lived there until the age of 10 when he moved to Wilmington, DE where he worked for William A. Seals, a Quaker. Next he moved to Philadelphia, PA where he attended St. Thomas Colored Protestant Episcopal Church. In January 1836, he became a member of Mother Bethel AME church and started private studies under Reverend Jon M. Gloucester to prepare for the ministry.[1] He studied at Wesleyan Academy and Oberlin College, but did not complete a degree.
He was ordained a deacon in 1846, an elder in 1847, and consecrated the 11th Bishop in 1868. He preached in Amherst MA, Poughkeepsie, NY and Norfolk, VA.
He married Mary Louise Lewis, in 1852, and from this union were eight children.
He worked with and raised money for the Underground railroad[1]
Brown Chapel was named after Bishop John Mifflin Brown. This is where the church served as the meeting place for the voting rights movement, in 1965; and the starting place for the Selma to Montgomery March.[1]
[1] Selma by Sharon J. Jackson, p. 49.
[1] The Underground Railroad and Encyclopedia of People, Places and Operations, p. 82.
[1] Africana; The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience.
