This week in Christian history: Spain dissolves Jesuit order; Richard Harvey Cain dies
Richard Harvey Cain dies – Jan. 18, 1887
This week marks the anniversary of when Richard Harvey Cain, an African American bishop, civil rights activist and Republican member of the U.S. Congress, died at the age of 61.
A native of Greenbrier County, Virginia, whose parents were free blacks, Cain was a pastor and newspaper editor who championed political and civil rights for African Americans.
He was elected to two non-consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing South Carolina: the first from 1873–1875 and the second from 1877–1879.
Cain pastored multiple churches in his ecclesiastical career, among them the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina.
“After leaving Congress, Cain became more active in the affairs of the AME Church. In 1880, Cain was elected to serve as bishop in the Texas-Louisiana Conference,” explains the House of Representatives’ History, Art & Archives website.
“He cofounded Paul Quinn College, an all-Black Christian institution in Waco, Texas, and served as its president until July 1884. Cain then returned to Washington, DC, to serve as bishop of the AME Conference with jurisdiction in the mid-Atlantic and New England states, overseeing his new post from the nation’s capital until he died.”
