1820

AME founder Daniel Coker sailed with 88 colonists to Sierra Leone aboard the ship Elizabeth, becoming the first Black American Protestant missionary to work in Africa. Unlike many who returned, Coker remained in West Africa, eventually settling in Freetown where he ministered and taught until his death around 1846, establishing a lasting African-American religious presence on the continent.

AME founder Daniel Coker sailed with 88 colonists to Sierra Leone aboard the ship Elizabeth, becoming the first Black American Protestant missionary to work in Africa. Unlike many who returned, Coker remained in West Africa, eventually settling in Freetown where he ministered and taught until his death around 1846.

The AMEZ Church, founded by James Varick and Christopher Rush among others, was formally incorporated in New York in 1820 after years of meetings beginning in 1796. Varick was elected the first superintendent (bishop) in 1822. The church grew to become a major institutional anchor for Black New Yorkers and would shelter abolitionists Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth among its members.

The AMEZ Church, founded by James Varick, was formally incorporated in New York in 1820. Varick was elected first bishop in 1822. The church grew to become a major anchor for Black New Yorkers and would shelter abolitionists Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth, earning the name 'Freedom Church.'

As enrollment at the original African Free School in New York City swelled, a second school was founded in 1820 to accommodate demand. By the mid-1820s combined enrollment exceeded 500 Black students. The schools produced an extraordinary alumni cohort including physicians, ministers, abolitionists, and actors who shaped nineteenth-century Black intellectual life.