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397:(founded 1824), where he served for 49 years, until his death. Under Bragg's leadership, the struggling congregation of 63 again became self-supporting, tripling in size and building a new structure on Park Avenue and Preston Streets by 1901. By 1924, it was among the largest black Episcopal parishes in the country, with over 500 parishioners. During the
145:, to live with his grandmother Caroline Wiley Cain Bragg, a devout Episcopalian and former slave of an Episcopal priest. Even before the war, Petersburg had been known for its prosperous free black community, and the city's Episcopal churches soon established Sunday schools for black children, to prepare them for the responsibilities of citizenship.
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165:, had done likewise at Grace Episcopal Church the previous year. The following year Caroline Bragg was among the founding members of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Petersburg's first black Episcopalian church, and her extended family formed much of the congregation. In 1869, with financial support of the
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Bragg fought against restricting the church's mission work to overseas activities, arguing that the denomination also needed to foster
African American congregations. He served as secretary and historiographer of the Conference of Church Workers among Colored Peopleβwhich lobbied, among other things,
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In 1872, when the first priest associated with St. Stephens, the Rev. J.S. Atwell, an
African-American missionary from Kentucky who had also been trying to revive St. Philip's African-American congregation in Richmond, resigned and moved to Georgia, Cooke (who had been ordained deacon the previous
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and the
Peabody fund, Petersburg became the first city in Virginia to begin establishing public schools for black children, and Cooke became principal of the new Elementary School Number 1 (which later became Peabody High School). He later formed Big Oak Private School for the same purpose.
405:. On Easter Sunday 1932, Bragg led the congregation's first service in what remains its current church building On March 26, 1933, the congregation presented its largest-ever class for confirmation by the bishop, who had supported the move despite considerable opposition within the parish.
386:; thus Bragg became the twelfth black Episcopal priest. During next five years, Bragg expanded his congregation into the fully self-supporting Grace Episcopal Church. He also established the Industrial School for Colored Girls, and served from 1887 through 1890 on the board of
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Six months after Bragg began his theological studies, Cooke expelled him for "insufficient humility". Bragg then turned his attention to politics, working at Mahone's headquarters. For his efforts, he was appointed a page in the House of
Delegates in
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laws, both within and outside the church. In 1899, he helped establish a black orphanage in
Baltimore (the Maryland Home for Friendless Colored Children), which became known for its placement of teenagers in foster homes. Three years later he helped
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found the
Committee of Twelve, which fought to prevent disenfranchisement of blacks in Maryland. He also advocated the hiring of African-American teachers to educate African-American children in Baltimore's schools. Bragg later joined
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who after the war began studying to become an
Episcopal priest) had started a Sunday school for freed slaves at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Petersburg. Two other Confederate veterans, Alexander W. Weddell and future bishop
390:. However, Virginia increased its discrimination against black clergy in 1899, restricting their votes in the diocesan council to the Convocation of the Missionary Jurisdiction, over the objections of Bragg and others.
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The attitude of the
Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People, towards the adaptation of the Episcopate to the needs of the race : with a list of ordinations of colored men to the ministry of
401:, it sold that building, which had become cramped, and bought a larger church on Lafayette Square from a white congregation (Church of the Ascension) which moved out of the city to rapidly developing
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350:. The campaign disillusioned Bragg, who decided Mahone did not care about the civil rights of black voters, only their votes. Thus on September 12, 1885, he announced that the
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362:. A change in the rector at St. Stephens also allowed Bragg to resume his theological studies at the Bishop Payne Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1886.
738:
Ronald E. Butchart, Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning, and the
Struggle for Black Freedom, 1861-1876 (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), p. 75
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eulogized his quiet manner, dignity and work for interracial harmony. Four years after his death, his congregation purchased and dedicated an altar in his memory.
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On
September 20, 1887, Bragg married the daughter of another prominent Petersburg black family, Nellie Hill. The couple ultimately had two sons and two daughters.
141:, and baptised at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. As the war ended, his carpenter father (also George Freeman Bragg) and seamstress mother (Mary) moved their family to
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198:, after in 1869 founding the Methodist-leaning Zion Union Apostolic Church for African Americans with the support of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.
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However, after the Readjuster Party losses in the 1883 elections, Bragg supported a black candidate for U.S. Congress, who lost to Mahone's white candidate,
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As a child young Bragg delivered newspapers and established relationships with the city's white leaders, including John Hampden Chamberlayne, editor of the
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374:. He successfully challenged a rule that black deacons wait at least five years before ordination as priests. Thus, on December 19, 1888, Bishop
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would eschew politics, but concentrate on moral, educational and commercial matters. The following February, he changed the paper's name to the
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for the election and consecration of black bishops. Bragg himself was twice interviewed, but never selected for that promotion. Nonetheless,
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Richard Allen and Absalom Jones: in Honor of the Centennial of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Which Occurs in the Year 1916
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442:, wrote several books as listed below, and worked to develop black ministers (fostering more than 20 vocations, including the Rev.
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of the United States, he worked against racial discrimination and for interracial harmony, both within and outside of his church.
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to train . Young Bragg became one of the first students at Saint Stephen's Normal and Industrial School, which became later the
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Bragg was ordained a deacon on January 12, 1887, and assigned as vicar to Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, a mission in
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805:"Odell Greanleaf Harris, History of the Bishop Payne Divinity School (Virginia Theological Seminary, 1980)at pp. 13-14"
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edited by Edward L. Ayers and John C. Willis (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991) at pp. 134β156.
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In 1891, Bragg accepted a call and became rector of the oldest black Episcopal congregation in the South, Baltimore's
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G. Maclaren Brydon, The Episcopal Church Among the Negroes of Virginia (Virginia Diocesan Library, 1937) p. 9
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priest, journalist, social activist and historian. The twelfth African American ordained as a priest in the
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Solicitation for Baltimore's Colored Orphanage, digitized by University of North Carolina's Docsouth project
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George F. Bragg (George Freeman), 1863-1940 History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church
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year) became St. Stephens' second rector. He soon merged his Big Oak School with the others to form a
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Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. & David Hein, 'The Episcopalians' (Church Publishing, 2005) pp. 171-172
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Bragg died on March 12, 1940, after a short hospitalization at Baltimore's Providence Hospital. The
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Hartzell, Lawrence L. "The Exploration of Freedom in Black Petersburg, Virginia, 1865β1902." in
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627:"Documenting the American South: George F. Bragg (George Freeman), 1863-1940"
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Gilded Age City: Politics, Life and Labor in Petersburg, Virginia, 1874β1889.
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The story of the first of the Blacks, the pathfinder Absalom Jones, 1746-1818
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247: in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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A Bond-Slave of Christ: Entering the Ministry Under Great Difficulties
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graduate and former Confederate army officer on the staff of General
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Canon" : the birth and history of the missionary district plan
758:"Keeping the Story The Reverend George F. Bragg, D. D., 1863-1940"
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The Edge of the South: Life in Nineteenth-Century Virginia,
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History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church
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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
714:"Peabody High School historical highway marker unveiling"
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Bragg continued his social activism fighting racism and
780:"National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form"
609:(Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1980).
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in 1881β82. On July 1, 1882, Bragg founded the weekly
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959:at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
506:The Story of Old St. Stephen's, Petersburg, Va.
487:The Colored Harvest in the Old Virginia Diocese
438:. Bragg also continued publishing the monthly
331:and appealed for the support of black voters.
186:. Another early student and success story was
629:. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
8:
905:Rasmussen, Frederick N. (19 February 2000).
785:. Virginia Department of Historic Resources
113:(January 25, 1863 β March 12, 1940) was an
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388:Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute
307:Learn how and when to remove this message
192:Saint Paul's Normal and Industrial School
454:awarded him an honorary degree in 1902.
963:The first negro priest on southern soil
618:
512:The First Negro Priest on Southern Soil
477:'s Moorland-Springarm Research Center.
546:The Episcopal Church and the black man
1017:People from Warrenton, North Carolina
493:Afro-American Church Work and Workers
446:, who worked on the national level).
343:, dedicated to civil rights issues.
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1027:20th-century African-American people
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245:adding citations to reliable sources
933:"George Freeman Bragg manuscripts"
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1042:People enslaved in North Carolina
1037:20th-century Anglican theologians
1032:19th-century Anglican theologians
982:African-American Christian clergy
655:"Giles Buckner Cooke (1838β1937)"
1022:People from Petersburg, Virginia
716:. Progress-Index. Archived from
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909:. Baltimore Sun. Archived from
232:needs additional citations for
129:Bragg was born into slavery in
430:as one of the founders of the
378:ordained Bragg as a priest at
205:Bragg and his ministerial sons
1:
1012:19th-century American writers
380:Saint Luke's Episcopal Church
1007:19th-century American slaves
907:"A voice for racial harmony"
184:Bishop Payne Divinity School
469:His papers are held by the
154:Virginia Military Institute
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1002:American Episcopal priests
395:St. James Episcopal Church
997:American Christian clergy
689:"γγͺγγ«γδ»γΎγγ«γ’γγοΌγγ£γγιγγ§γΏγγ"
47:Warrenton, North Carolina
30:
471:New York Public Library
376:Francis McNeece Whittle
356:Afro-American Churchman
213:Journalism and politics
196:Lawrenceville, Virginia
605:Henderson, William D.
452:Wilberforce University
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403:Middle River, Maryland
327:, who had founded the
323:and political ally of
256:"George Freeman Bragg"
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163:Robert Atkinson Gibson
137:, in 1863, during the
85:Afro-American activist
659:Encyclopedia Virginia
653:Obrochta, William B.
434:, a precursor of the
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188:James Solomon Russell
125:Early and family life
845:on February 22, 2015
810:. Episcopal Archives
760:. Episcopal Archives
423:Booker T. Washington
358:and later it became
241:improve this article
143:Petersburg, Virginia
111:George Freeman Bragg
24:George Freeman Bragg
839:"Untitled Document"
747:Brydon at pp. 10-11
360:The Church Advocate
150:Giles Buckner Cooke
102:Lucinda Bragg Adams
913:on 22 October 2015
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348:James Dennis Brady
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139:American Civil War
894:978-0-89869-497-0
475:Howard University
341:Petersburg Lancet
321:Petersburg Index,
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167:Freedmen's Bureau
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565:See also
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593:Sources
384:Norfolk
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