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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

Pennsylvania Abolition Society Grant to Digitize Historically Black Church Records

May 30, 2023

Synod of Catawba meeting, 1925.[Pearl ID: 2142]

The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) is the recipient of a 2023 grant from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society Endowment Fund, following a recommendation by Ms. Cindy Little.

The $1,800 grant, awarded to the Society’s...

Author:

Kristen

Tags:

African American History, African American Presbyterians, News and Events

African American Leaders: Val Murphy

May 1, 2023

Each month, the Presbyterian Historical Society is bearing witness to the lives of African American leaders throughout the history of the PC(USA). Click here to learn how PHS is collecting records of the Black Presbyterian experience through the African American Leaders and Congregations Initiative.

Additionally, a free bulletin insert about each figure is available for download at the end of...

Author:

Nancy

Tags:

African American Leaders Series, African American History, Womens History

Confronting the Revolution of Our Times: The Mary Jane Patterson Story

April 25, 2023

Mary Jane Patterson was born on February 12th, 1924, in Marietta, Ohio. At that time in southern Ohio, very few African American families lived there. Mary Jane spoke of this time fondly and noted that she was not very aware of race relations growing up because she lived in an integrated town. After her high school graduation, she moved to Columbus, Ohio, where her worldview changed drastically. It was her first encounter with more extreme forms of segregation, and she became more acquainted with the blooming civil rights movement taking hold in the 1940s.

She enrolled in...

Author:

Matty

Tags:

Womens History, African American History

African American Leaders: Clinton McClurkin Marsh

April 4, 2023

Each month, the Presbyterian Historical Society is bearing witness to the lives of African American leaders throughout the history of the PC(USA). Click here to learn how PHS is collecting records of the Black Presbyterian experience through the African American Leaders and Congregations Initiative.

Additionally, a free bulletin insert about each figure is available for download at the end of...

Author:

Kyna

Tags:

African American Leaders Series, African American History

Phyllis Wheatley as Katie Geneva Cannon's Sacred Text

March 29, 2023

Left: Katie Geneva Cannon, 1995. [Pearl ID: 171115] Right: Portrait of Phyllis Wheatley c. 1753. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

--by Matty Marrow

The passage below details a monumental moment in not just Black American history, but the history of Black American women. It can be found repeatedly, almost word for word, in the works of Katie Geneva Cannon...

Author:

Matty

Tags:

African American History

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Pennsylvania Abolition Society Grant to Digitize Historically Black Church Records

African American Leaders: Val Murphy

Confronting the Revolution of Our Times: The Mary Jane Patterson Story

African American Leaders: Clinton McClurkin Marsh

Phyllis Wheatley as Katie Geneva Cannon's Sacred Text