Joseph H Jordon died on this day in 1901. He was fifty-nine.
Jordon was the first Universalist minister of African-American descent.
Born free in West Norfolk, Virginia, he worked variously as laborer, grocer, and carpenter, before building a number of houses and becoming a landlord.
He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1880, but after meeting Universalists and reading widely, although Thomas Whittemore’s The Plain Guide to Universalism, seemed particularly important, was convinced of universal salvation and started preaching the good news. In 1888 he was licensed to preach by the Universalist General Convention, and the next year was ordained as a Universalist minister.
Due to racism in the white community and resistance to the gospel of universalism among the African American community, his ministry met with constant challenges.
But he persevered and there were those who heard the message, finding their hearts liberated, and their lives guided toward a larger good through the Christian version of the universalist insight…
The church he founded in Suffolk continued until 1984.
A significant figure in the advancement of Universalism, Reverend Jordon deserves to be remembered, his life and work celebrated.
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