Rev. Arad Simon Lakin (May 10, 1810–January 22, 1890) was an American minister, and university president. He was a Methodist minister from New York state, sent to Alabama in order to reestablish the national Methodist Church in the state, and was labeled a " carpetbagger" by Southerners. He was appointed president of the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

during the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

Biography

Arad Simon Lakin was born in 1810 in Hancock, Delaware County, New York. He grew up in New York state in rural poverty. Lakin served as the

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

of the 8th Indiana Cavalry, Union Army, during the American Civil War. He was a reverend from Ohio and had been active in the political organizing of freed slaves. The Bishop of Ohio sent minister Lakin to Alabama as a missionary for the national

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

(MEC). His goal was to establish a biracial congregation at MEC in Alabama and as a result, the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

targeted Lakin. On September 1, 1868, Lakin and Alabama School Superintendent Noah B. Cloud were the subject's of a Klan cartoon published in the ''Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor''. The cartoon featured images of the two educators lynched and hanging from a tree in the "City of Oaks" (or Tuscaloosa), with a KKK-labeled donkey below them, walking away. He resigned as president of the University of Alabama after Professor Wyman, who served on the university's board and who had refused to serve as president himself, refused to turn the keys over to Lakin. He died on January 22, 1890, in Rockport, Kansas, and was buried in Alabama.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakin, Arad Simon 1810 births 1890 deaths American Methodist clergy American Methodist missionaries People from Delaware County, New York Union army chaplains Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church Presidents of the University of Alabama

Biography

See also

References