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George Frazier Miller (November 28, 1864 – May 9, 1943)[citation needed] was an African-American[1] Christian preacher, socialist,[1] and civil rights activist. He was a leader of African-American Christian socialism as well as the black social gospel movement. Miller was pastor of St. Augustine's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York from 1896 until his death in 1943.[2][3]
Miller was one of the 29 founders of the Niagara Movement in 1905.[4][5]
Miller was involved in the Conference of Church Workers among Colored People,[6] and served as the organization's president in 1902.[7]
Early life edit
"born in South Carolina and educated at Howard University and New York University.[8] Miller was ordained on May 24, 1891.[9] and appointed as rector of St. Augustine's Church in Brooklyn in 1896.[10] St. Augustine's was the oldest and largest congregation in the diocese of Long Island.[11]
Activism edit
Under Miller's leadership, St. Augustine's became a center for black activism.[12]
"Early in the twentieth century, he was elected president of the National Equal Rights League, an organization dedicated to combating disfranchisement, segregation, and every other aspect of second-class citizenship for black Americans."[13]
In August 1917, Miller was part of a delegation of prominent African Americans who went to the White House to present a petition to President Woodrow Wilson, urging him to support legislation making lynching a federal crime. The delegation included Fred Moore of the New York Age, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, realtor John Nail, cosmetics mogul Madame C. J. Walker, Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. They were denied an audience.[14]
Miller ran for congress on the Socialist Party ticket in 1918, and won 25 per cent of the vote in Harlem.[15][16][17] He was one of many African-American socialists from Harlem who ran for political office 1918 to 1920, along with A. Philip Randolph, Chandler Owen, George Frazier Miller, Grace B. Campbell, Frank Poree, and W. B. Williams[15][18] His campaign was endorsed by the periodical Negro World[19][20] and by Cyril Valentine Briggs of the Crusader[21]
Miller was part of a delegation to President Coolidge which asked that he ban segregation of colored employees in federal agencies. The delegation was organized by the National Equal Rights League.[22]
Views on World War I and patriotism edit
During 1917-1918 during WWI, Miller took down the American flag outside his church in protest against the war, which he regarded as immoral.[1] Miller claimed that WWI had little to do with democracy, but was instead was about bolstering Wall Street and foreign loan programs.[12]
Miller said that because of segregation, the American flag had no special significance or meaning for him, but was merely a piece of fabric.[23]
Views on violence edit
"R. W. Bagnall, George Frazier Miller, and Byron Gunner have actually preached the use of force and encouraged resistance to the mobs to the extent that some Negroes have probably addressed themselves vindictively to the task of retribution."[24]
Character edit
Miller was known for his fearlessness[23][25] as well as "his strength of conviction as well as his eloquence and charm".[23]
Miller was a highly cultured yet socially conscious Protestant Episcopal minister http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/145.html
"Miller had a reputation for being a radical, someone willing to stand up to the white power structure." [1]
Influence edit
He was a leader of African-American Christian socialism along with Afro-American clerics such as George Washington Woodbey and Reverdy C. Ransom. [15] Miller was a key figure in the development of the black social gospel movement, along with Baptist ministers James R. L. Diggs, Peter James Bryant, and William Jefferson White, Congregational minister Byron Gunner, and Episcopal rector Robert W. Bagnall.[26]
Miller influenced other black leaders such as Richard B. Moore[15] and Bertram Baker[27]
Works edit
- George Frazier Miller (October 19, 1913). A REPLY TO "The Political Plea".
- Socialism and its colored basis. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2007/20070525002so/20070525002so.pdf
- George Frazier Miller (14 February 1901). "Defends minister Wu". The New York Times. p. 8. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
- Rev. George Frazier Miller, The Sacredness of Humanity: Annual Sermon of the Conference of Church Workers (Episcopal) among Colored People at St. Philip's Church, New York, October 6-9, 1914 (Brooklyn: Frank R. Chisholm, 1914).
- National Lincoln-Douglass call and invitation
- — (1905). Adventism answered: The Sabbath question. Guide Printing and Publishing Company. ASIN B0892QT65R. hdl:2027/nnc1.cr60119179. OCLC 25733735.
- Miller, George Frazier (1915). The colored ministry of New York. National Negro Exposition, New York State Commission. ASIN B000862LUI. OCLC 2394145.
- — (1917). The Alumni: an Effective Force in University Effort. Vol. 11. pp. 11–18.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - Search WorldCat for more works
Citations edit
- ^ a b c d Howell 2018, p. 24.
- ^ St. Augustine's Church 2003.
- ^ The New York Times 1926.
- ^ Jones, Angela (31 August 2011). African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement. ISBN 9780313393600.
- ^ https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-i0404
- ^ https://archive.org/stream/minutesof28thann00conf/minutesof28thann00conf_djvu.txt
- ^ The Evening Star 1902.
- ^ https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/8b3e6c70-ef8f-4aa0-83b4-6ad9f85c063e/section/85886216-fc55-4504-9f10-2d0f53139c18#id_77
- ^ https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bragg/bragg.html#bragg271
- ^ https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/8b3e6c70-ef8f-4aa0-83b4-6ad9f85c063e/section/85886216-fc55-4504-9f10-2d0f53139c18#id_77
- ^ https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bragg/bragg.html#bragg228
- ^ a b Howell 2018, p. 26.
- ^ https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/8b3e6c70-ef8f-4aa0-83b4-6ad9f85c063e/section/85886216-fc55-4504-9f10-2d0f53139c18#id_77
- ^ https://blacknewyorkers-nypl.org/migrations-and-black-neighborhoods/
- ^ a b c d McClendon 2006.
- ^ Richard B. Moore, "Afro-Americans and Radical Politics" in W. Burghardt Turner and Joyce Moore Turner, eds., Richard B. Moore, Caribbean Militant in Harlem, pp. 217-18.
- ^ http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/145.html
- ^ https://generalyourtankisapowerfulvehicle.blogspot.com/2008/06/chapter-two.html
- ^ https://generalyourtankisapowerfulvehicle.blogspot.com/2008/06/chapter-two.html
- ^ https://www.americanradicalmovements.com/chapter-9-the-great-divide-the-break-between-the-afro-american-socialists-and-nationalists.html
- ^ https://generalyourtankisapowerfulvehicle.blogspot.com/2008/06/chapter-three.html
- ^ The Evening Star 1923.
- ^ a b c Howell 2018, p. 25.
- ^ https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/woodson/woodson.html#woods304
- ^ https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/woodson/woodson.html#woods277
- ^ Dorrien 2015.
- ^ Howell 2018, pp. 24–26, 35–36.
References edit
- "Annual conference: Church Workers Among Colored People to meet". The Evening Star. Washington, DC. 14 October 1902. p. 17.
- "Rap segregation of negro worker: Equal rights body asks Coolidge ban rule in U.S. departments". The Evening Star. Washington, DC. 6 October 1923. p. 2.
- Howell, Ron (2 October 2018). Boss of Black Brooklyn: : The Life and Times of Bertram L. Baker. Fordham University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv8bt22k. ISBN 978-0-8232-8101-5. S2CID 240097862.
- McClendon, John M. (2006). Richard B. Moore, radical politics, and the Afro-American history movement: the formation of a revolutionary tradition in African American intellectual culture. Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 30(2), 7-45. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Richard+B.+Moore%2c+radical+politics%2c+and+the+Afro-American+history...-a0148463507 Also available from ProQuest.
- Woodson, Carter Godwin |date=1921 |The History of the Negro Church:
- Woodson, C.G. (1921). The History of the Negro Church. Black thought and culture. Associated Publishers. ISBN 9780598542038. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
- "HAIL PASTOR'S 30 YEARS IN ST. AUGUSTINE PULPIT; Brooklyn Church and the Rev. W.V. Tunnell Mark Anniversary of the Rev. George F. Miller". The New York Times. 25 October 1926. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
- "Our History". St. Augustine's Episcopal Church. 10 November 2003. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
- Dorrien, Gary (2015). "Recovering the Black Social Gospel: The figures, conflicts, and ideas that forged 'the new abolition.'". Harvard Divinity Bulletin.
Further reading edit
- https://books.google.com/books?id=mxCKaX-SUJMC&pg=PA229
- https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22George+Frazier+Miller%22&sin=TXT
- Elkins, W. F. (1968). ""Unrest among the Negroes": A British Document of 1919". Science & Society. 32 (1). Guilford Press: 66–79. JSTOR 40401322.
- Perry, Jeffrey (2009). Hubert Harrison : the voice of Harlem radicalism, 1883-1918. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13910-6. OCLC 774289139.
External links edit
portraits
- https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/george-frazier-miller
- The Alumni: an Effective Force in University Effort," by Rev. George Frazier Miller,
- https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-a13b-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
- https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-i0404