Edward Thomas Demby facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Edward Thomas Demby |
|
|---|---|
| Suffragan Bishop of Arkansas | |
 |
|
| Church | Episcopal Church |
| Diocese | Arkansas |
| Elected | 1918 |
| In Office | 1918–1939 |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 8, 1899 |
| Consecration | September 29, 1918 by Daniel S. Tuttle |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 13, 1869 Wilmington, Delaware, United States |
| Died | April 14, 1957 (aged 88) Cleveland, Ohio, United States |
| Buried | Lake View Cemetery |
| Nationality | American |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Parents | Edward T. Demby IV & Mary Anderson Tippett |
| Spouse | Polly Alston Sherrill (died 1899) Antoinette Martina Ricks
(m. 1902; died 1957) |
| Alma mater | Wilberforce University |
Edward Thomas Demby (February 13, 1869 – April 14, 1957) was an important African-American bishop and writer. He was a priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Later, he became a suffragan bishop (a helper bishop) in the Diocese of Arkansas and the Southwest. Demby worked hard to fight against unfair treatment based on race. He also promoted peace and understanding between different racial groups, both inside and outside his church.
Early Life and Family
Edward Demby was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1869. He was the oldest child of Edward T. Demby IV and Mary Anderson Tippett. Both of his parents were born free. Edward got his first education from his uncle, Eddy Anderson. His uncle ran a school behind a church that was important to the African American community in Wilmington.
Edward then moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to attend a special school called the Institute for Colored Youth. After that, he went to the Centenary Bible Institute in Baltimore. He also studied at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Wilberforce University in Ohio, and the University of Chicago. To support himself, he taught younger children.
Edward Demby's first wife, Polly Alston Sherrill, passed away while he was working in Tennessee. In 1902, he married Antoinette Ricks in Kansas City. Antoinette was one of the first nurses to graduate from Howard University. She was also the head nurse at Freedman's Hospital in Kansas City.
His Work as a Minister
From 1894 to 1896, Edward Demby was the Dean of Students at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas. At this time, he was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. While there, he joined the Episcopal Church. Bishop John Franklin Spalding became his guide and ordained him as a deacon in 1898. The next year, he became a priest.
His first assignment was in Mason, Tennessee. He served as the leader of St. Paul's Church and was also the principal of St. Paul's Parochial School. From 1900 to 1907, he worked in churches in Kansas City, Missouri, Cairo, Illinois, and Key West, Florida.
Demby saw firsthand the unfair separation of people by race, known as the Jim Crow system, in the Southern United States. In 1907, he returned to Memphis to lead Emmanuel Church. There, he helped the African American church members build their own church. He also started a boarding school and an industrial school.
He spoke out against Booker T. Washington for being too accepting of the way white people treated African Americans. Demby believed that Washington's ideas about industrial education were not always the best for many black people. He agreed more with W.E.B. DuBois.
Even though Demby first preferred a different plan for church service among African Americans, he became an important leader. He was the secretary for the "colored convocations," which were segregated churches in the South. He also became an Archdeacon (a senior church official) for Colored Work in the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.
In 1918, Demby became a bishop at All Saints' Church in St. Louis. He was named the suffragan bishop of Arkansas. This made him the first African American to become a bishop in the United States. He worked with black hospitals, schools, and orphanages. He also pushed for African Americans to be fully recognized within the Episcopal Church.
Demby faced many challenges. He found that he had no salary and no official home as a bishop. He said it was like "building bricks without straw," meaning it was very difficult. In 1922, the national church started paying him a salary. He used some of this money to start Christ Church Parochial and Industrial School in Forrest City, Arkansas. Demby also helped the church deal with a difficult situation involving Bishop William Montgomery Brown.
The Great Depression (a time of severe economic hardship) affected everyone, including church members. It also made it harder for Demby to achieve his goal of black Episcopal churches being able to support themselves. Despite challenges, Demby continued his work on a national level. He served on several important church committees. These committees worked to improve race relations and change how the church served African Americans.
Demby also started and edited a newspaper called The Southwest Churchman. He became a leading voice in the effort to end racial segregation within the Episcopal Church. He wrote many articles and devotional books. These included Devotions of the Cross and at the Holy Mass and My Companion.
Death and Legacy
Edward Demby retired in 1938. However, he continued to serve individual churches in Kansas, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. He passed away in Cleveland in 1957. His wife, Antoinette, also died in Cleveland.
Demby lived to see the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. This decision helped end segregation in schools. He also saw Episcopal bishop R. Bland Mitchell support this decision in Arkansas. Demby was remembered as someone who tried to end racism through his good example.
Both Edward Demby and his wife Antoinette are buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. In 1953, Demby gave some of his important papers to Yale University. Other papers belonging to him and his wife are kept at the New York Public Library's Schomberg Center. There is a beautiful stained glass window at St. Edmund's Church in Chicago, Illinois, that honors this dedicated servant of God.
