St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Completed in 1880, St. Luke's Episcopal Church is home to Washington D.C.'s first independent African-American Episcopalian church. The congregation was established in 1875 by a group of Episcopalians led by Alexander Crummell (1819-1898), one of the 19th century's leading African-American ministers, intellectuals, missionaries, and civil-rights activists. Crummell lived as a missionary in the newly independent African country of Liberia from 1853 to 1873 to convert Africans to Christianity and establish a model Christian republic. He also strongly believed that churches could shape the lives of African Americans and serve as agents of social change and education. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark for its association with Crummell.

Alexander Crummell was born on March 3, 1819 in New York City. His mother, Charity Hicks, was born free and his father, Boston Crummell, was the son of a West African chief of the Temne people, who live in present-day Sierra Leone. Boston was sold into slavery when he was 13 years old but obtained his freedom as an adult. His parents were both active abolitionists and instilled their beliefs in Crummell, who began his abolitionist activities at a young age. As a boy, he attended the African Free School, which educated free children of color and children of enslaved people. When he was a young man he attended two integrated schools founded by abolitionists, the Noyes Academy and the Oneida Institute.

It was during these years that Crummell emerged as a young intellectual and found a calling to become an Episcopal minister. In 1840 he was invited to give a keynote address at the New York State Negros Convention in Albany, New York. He applied to attend the General Theological Seminary around this time but was denied because of his race. Nevertheless, he studied theology in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and was ordained as a deacon in 1842 and then as a priest in 1844. That year, he requested permission from the Episcopal bishop of Philadelphia to establish a church in the city, which had a large free Black population. The bishop agreed but on the condition that no Black person could attend the Episcopalian church convention (the governing body of the church that meets every three years). Crummell rejected the offer and instead established a new congregation in New York City.

In 1847, following the suggestion from friends, Crummell (and his wife and children; he got married in 1841) moved to England in hopes of raising funds to build a church for his congregation. While there, he attended Queens College in Cambridge and received a formal education in philosophy, history, and theology. In 1853, he became, it is believed, the college's first-recorded Black graduate. Instead of returning to America, he and his family moved to Liberia where he served at four parishes and as a professor of English and philosophy at Liberia College. His goal was to establish a Christian republic and hoped to attract other African Americans to the new country. Despite his best efforts there was little interest and significant opposition to the idea.

Upon returning to America, Crummell settled in Washington D.C. where he served as pastor at St. Mary's Episcopal Mission, which was located in a largely Black neighborhood. Two years later he established St. Luke's Episcopal Church. The first service was held on Thanksgiving Day in 1879 but construction was completed in 1880. Crummell served as rector at St. Luke's until 1894 and the next year joined the faculty at Howard University where he taught until 1897. That year he founded the American Negro Academy, which was the first organization in the country to provide academic scholarships to African Americans. Founding members included eminent African American leaders of the day including W.E.B. Dubois and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Crummell died in Red Bank, New Jersey on September 10, 1898. He left a large body of work comprised of numerous published articles, sermons, and three books. His personal papers are housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.

Anderson, Gerald H. "Crummell, Alexander (1819-1898)." Excerpt from the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. New York City: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998. Retrieved from Boston University, School of Theology on October 31, 2022. https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/crummell.

Bates, Stephen. "Alexander Crummell, Cambridge's first Black graduate." The Guardian. October 19, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/oct/20/alexander-crummell-cambridge-Black-graduate.

"The Reverend Alexander Crummell, 1819-1898." Episcopal Archives. Accessed October 31, 2022. https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/crummell.

Thompson, Stephen. "Alexander Crummell." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/alexander-crummell.

Twigg, John. "Alexander Crummell." Queen's College Cambridge. Accessed October 31, 2022. https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/visiting-the-college/history/college-facts/alexander-crummell.