James Solomon Russell was born into slavery on December 20th, 1857, near Palmer Springs, Virginia. He became known as the father of St. Paul’s College (one of the three historically black Episcopal Colleges) and was the founder of numerous congregations, a missionary, and a writer.

He was the first student of St. Stephen’s Normal and Theological Institute (which later became the Bishop Payne Divinity School) in Petersburg, Virginia. In 1888, one…