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SALT LAKE CITY — Trinity AME Church on Tuesday held a press conference on the 252nd birthday of Bishop Richard Allen, a man who never came to Utah but has had a profound impact on our culture.
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker declared Tuesday Bishop Richard Allen Day. Read his proclamation here.
Richard Allen was born a slave in 1760. Freed 20 years later, he became a teacher, writer, minister and founder of the African Methodist Episcopalian Church.
Tuesday Utahns came together at Salt Lake's AME church to celebrate the 252nd birthday of Bishop Allen, a man who inspired the abolitionists of his time and the civil rights movement of ours.
- Born Feb. 14, 1760 in Philadelphia
- Born a slave, sold to a planter in Delaware, then obtained freedom
- First bishop of African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1816
- Church founded on principles of the power of divine love
- Died March 26, 1831 in Philadelphia
Alan Scott Bachman, chairman of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable said, "Bishop Allen was a man of love. He was a man who wanted all people to be free - black people, white people, people of every color - to be free."
The Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable has launched a campaign to help raise renovation funds for the 105-year- old AME church located at 239 E. 600 South in Salt Lake. It's trying to raise $300,000.
The building is on the national and state registers of historic places.
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Contributing: Richard Trishman
