, Kansas City, 1897 At twenty five he was appointed to
Sacramento by Bishop
Daniel A. Payne, but he could not afford to go, so he moved to
Washington, D. C. where he organized a Sunday School for freed slaves in the Navy Yard with the permission of Admiral
John A. Dahlgren. In 1863 he became pastor of a church in
Georgetown. In 1866 he moved to a large church in
Baltimore. Shortly later he was appointed principal of the Annual Conference School at
Fredericktown, Maryland, and he organized a common school under the auspices of the
Freedmen's Bureau. In 1868 he was elected chief secretary of the general conference of the AME church and founded and became editor of the church newspaper, the
Christian Recorder, a role he served for 16 years. In 1870 he was given an A. M. degree by Avery College and in the 1870s he was given an honorary D. D. by
Wilberforce University. In 1884 he was made editor of the
A. M. E. Review, and he was the author of a number of books and pamphlets in the 1870s and 1880s, including: 'Apology for African Methodism;' 'The Negro's Origin; and Is He Cursed of God,' 'An Outline of our History and Government;' 'The Negro, African and American.' He was a participant in the March 5, 1897, meeting to celebrate the memory of Frederick Douglass which founded the
American Negro Academy led by
Alexander Crummell. Until 1905, he was a participating member of this first major African American learned society, which was led by scholars, activist, editors, and bishops like Tanner. It refuted racist scholarship, promoted black claims to individual, social, and political equality, and studied the history and sociology of African American life. == Personal life and death ==