Black America – Richard Allen, Absalom Jones

In 1787 Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, two free Black men of Philadelphia, established the Free African Society.  This was the first known organization to be founded by Blacks for the improvement of the economic and social conditions of Negroes in the US.  In 1794, while worshiping at St. George’s Methodist Church in Philadelphia one Sunday, they were forcibly removed from the church by white members for refusing to sit in the “colored section.”  Jones later became the first Black Protestant Episcopal clergyman in the nation.  Later, Allen realized that worship could not be confined to benches reserved for “Black and White,” so he organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church and became its first bishop.

(In Black America, 1970, Books, Inc.)