February 1 marked the beginning of Black History Month. For nearly a year our congregation has considered the place of St. John’s in Hampton’s Black community through difficult but important conversations about the Confederate monument in our cemetery. But this is far from the only part of our history that intersects with Black history.
The contributions of Black people to the Episcopal Church often go unnoticed or unappreciated because of years of discrimination, segregation and attempted erasure. Below you will find just one story of a local Black priest who paved the way for priests of color in Virginia and people of color in our Diocese. We encourage you to engage with stories like his and acknowledge the significance of Black people in our church’s history and our current community.
The Reverend James Solomon Russell was named a “local saint” in the Diocese of Southern Virginia in 1996. He was born enslaved on December 20, 1857. Emancipated after the Civil War, he enrolled in Hampton University (then Hampton Institute) in 1874. It was there, reciting the Apostles’ Creed every Friday as part of his coursework, that he declared himself a member of the Episcopal Church and dedicated his life to serving God. He went on to attend the Virginia Theological Seminary as the first student of color in what would become the Bishop Payne Divinity School. He was ordained a deacon in 1882, and became a priest in 1887.
In addition to founding a school for the education of children of color which would become a central fixture of his life’s work, he became the first Archdeacon for Colored Work in the Diocese of Southern Virginia and was the first Black person to receive an honorary degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1917. His story underscores the rich history, intense vitality and vital importance of Hampton’s Black community not only to our Diocese, but to the entire Episcopal Church. You can read more about Reverend Russell in his autobiography, Adventure in Faith, published in 1936.
Originally published in St. John’s Newsletter, February 2021.