The growing local momentum toward inclusiveness resulted in the election of several African Americans as suffragans who were not limited to “colored work.” The majority of these assignments were in northern dioceses where the suffragans were granted authority over white congregations. The first of these was John M. Burgess in 1962 in the Diocese of Massachusetts. Bishop Burgess was quickly followed by Richard B. Martin; John T. Walker; Quintin E. Primo, Jr.; Harold L. Wright; Henry I. Mayson; and Walter D. Dennis. Burgess and Walker were later elected as diocesan bishops in Massachusetts and Washington (D.C.).
The Right Reverend Quintin Ebenezer Primo, Jr., c.1970
Election of African American continued into the 1980s in the dioceses of Long Island, Connecticut, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The decade was also marked by the consecration of two black priests, Orris G. Walker, Jr. (Long Island) and Herbert Thompson, Jr. (Southern Ohio) as bishop coadjutors, a distinction in jurisdiction which did not require service as suffragan bishops. The decade culminated in the consecration of the first black woman to the episcopate, Barbara C. Harris, as bishop suffragan of Massachusetts in 1989. It was more than a symbolic victory for women and African Americans. Barbara Harris’s election forced the Church to engage an extended reexamination of the authority of its teaching in matters where polity brushed up against scriptural literalism. The principle of equality for all baptized Christians that grew out of the struggle to end segregation and become a truly catholic Church would become the Episcopal Church’s unique contribution to the evolving Anglican Communion.
Black Episcopalians continued to be selected for overseas service in dioceses where the Episcopal Church serves a predominantly black population. They have achieved the episcopate in Haiti, Liberia, Virgin Islands, Panama, Honduras, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. A list of those African American men and women who have served in the episcopate follows.
James Theodore Holly,
I Bishop of Haiti
Consecration number: 106a
Consecration date: November 8, 1874
Samuel David Ferguson,
IV Bishop of Liberia
Consecration number: 139
Consecration date: June 24, 1885
Edward Thomas Demby,
Bishop Suffragan for Colored Work in the Diocese of Arkansas and the Province of the Southwest
Consecration number: 296
Consecration date: September 29, 1918
Henry Beard Delany,
Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of North Carolina
Consecration number: 298
Consecration date: 1918
Theophilus Momolu Firah Gardiner,
Bishop Suffragan of Liberia
Consecration number: 318
Consecration date: June 23, 1921
Bravid Washington Harris,
VIII Bishop of Liberia
Consecration number: 451
Consecration date: April 17, 1945
Dillard Houston Brown,
IX Bishop of Liberia
Consecration number: 580
Consecration date: January 6, 1961
John Melville Burgess,
X Bishop of Massachusetts
Consecration number: 590
Consecration date: December 8, 1962
Cedric Earl,
I Bishop of the Virgin Islands
Consecration number: 593
Consecration date: April 19, 1963
Richard Beamon Martin,
Bishop Suffragan of Long Island
Consecration number: 620
Consecration date: February 2, 1967
George Daniel Browne,
X Bishop of Liberia
Consecration number: 652
Consecration date: August 6, 1970
Luc Anatole Jacques Garnier,
IV Bishop of Haiti
Consecration number: 660
Consecration date: April 20, 1971
John Thomas Walker,
VI Bishop of Washington
Consecration number: 664
Consecration date: June 29, 1971
Lemuel Barnett Shirley,
IV Bishop of Panama
Consecration number: 675
Consecration date: February 19, 1972
Telesforo Alexander Isaac,
II Bishop of the Dominican Republic
Consecration number: 678
Consecration date: March 9, 1972
Quintin Ebenezer Primo, Jr.,
Bishop Suffragan of Chicago
Consecration number: 683
Consecration date: September 20, 1972
Harold Louis Wright,
Bishop Suffragan of New York
Consecration number: 694
Consecration date: February 2, 1974
Henry Irving Mayson,
Bishop Suffragan of Michigan
Consecration number: 716
Consecration date: October 9, 1976
Walter Decoster Dennis,
Bishop Suffragan of New York
Consecration number: 734
Consecration date: October 6, 1979
Henry Boyd Hucles, III
Bishop Suffragan of Long Island
Consecration number: 760
Consecration date: June 20, 1981
Clarence Nicholas Coleridge,
XIII Bishop of Connecticut
Consecration number: 763
Consecration date: October 23, 1981
James Hamilton Ottley,
V Bishop of Panama
Consecration number: 779
Consecration date: June 24, 1984
Sturdie Wayman Downs,
II Bishop of Nicaragua
Consecration number: 793
Consecration date: February 9, 1985
Arthur Benjamin Williams, Jr.,
Bishop Suffragan of Ohio
Consecration number: 812
Consecration date: October 11, 1986
Egbert Don Taylor,
III Bishop of the Virgin Islands
Consecration number: 819
Consecration date: February 24, 1987
Orris George Walker, Jr.,
VII Bishop of Long Island
Consecration number: 826
Consecration date: April 9, 1988
Herbert Thompson, Jr.,
VIII Bishop of Southern Ohio
Consecration number: 829
Consecration date: September 24, 1988
Franklin Delton Turner,
Bishop Suffragan of Pennsylvania
Consecration number: 831
Consecration date: October 7, 1988
Barbara Clementine Harris,
Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts
Consecration number: 834
Consecration date: February 11, 1989
Chester Lovelle Talton,
Bishop Suffragan of Los Angeles
Consecration number: 861
Consecration date: January 26, 1991
Victor Alfonso Scantlebury,
Bishop Suffragan of Panama
Consecration number: 864
Consecration date: March 15, 1991
Jean Zache Duracin,
V Bishop of Haiti
Consecration number: 881
Consecration date: June 2, 1993
Theodore Althelbert Daniels,
IV Bishop of the Virgin Islands
Consecration number: 931
Consecration date: June 30, 1997
Wendell Nathaniel Gibbs, Jr.,
X Bishop of Michigan
Consecration number: 950
Consecration date: February 5, 2000
Michael Bruce Curry,
XI Bishop of North Carolina
Consecration number: 955
Consecration date: June 17, 2000
Lloyd Emmanuel Allen,
III Bishop of Honduras
Consecration number: 971
Consecration date: October 20, 2001
Gayle Elizabeth Harris,
Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts
Consecration number: 981
Consecration date: January 18, 2003
Edward Ambrose Gumbs,
V Bishop of the Virgin Islands
Consecration number: 1003
Consecration date: June 11, 2005
Nathan Dwight Baxter,
X Bishop of Central Pennsylvania
Consecration number: 1010
Consecration date: October 21, 2006