Missionaries to the Iban people of Sarawak Thomas and Jennie Harris applied for missionary service in 1947, answering a call by Bishop Creighton Lacy to serve the people of China. They were the first African-American couple to be assigned to China by the Methodist Board of Missions. Born and educated in Florida, they were members...
Educational Missionary in Liberia and Beyond Vivienne Newton Gray has been a public school teacher, religious social worker, Field Secretary with the Woman’s Division (1945-48), educational missionary in Liberia, West Africa (1948-74), and director of admissions and director of alumni affairs, Wiley College, Marshall, Texas. Working as a religious social worker with migrant families, Vivienne...
Education and Equality: The Work of Mary McLeod Bethune “Invest in the human soul,” Mary McLeod Bethune declared. “Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.” And invest Bethune did. This incredibly accomplished public servant founded the school that became Bethune-Cookman College as well as a training school for nurses, advised the White House,...
Brave Servant to Immigrant Children in Tampa Rosa Valdez was a brave Hispanic woman moved by the plight of immigrant children arriving in her hometown of Tampa, Florida, in the late 19th century when segregation was the law of the land. The children were banned from public schools, so Ms. Valdez used her own funds and, with...
