Nelson Wesley Trout (1921–1996) was the first African-American bishop in the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...

. Trout was born in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, USA. Trout was elected bishop of the South Pacific District of the

American Lutheran Church The American Lutheran Church (ALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States and Canada that existed from 1960 to 1987. Its headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon its formation in 1960, The ALC designated Augsburg ...

(ALC) in 1983, a position he served through 1987. At the time of his election he was a professor and director of minority studies at

Trinity Lutheran Seminary Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University (formerly the German Theological Seminary of the Ohio Synod; the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, ELTS; and Trinity Lutheran Seminary) is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in A ...

, Columbus, Ohio. Trout was renowned as a moving and powerful preacher throughout the church. During his earlier career, he served pastorates in Alabama (where he became a friend and colleague of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

), California and Wisconsin, and as Executive Director of Lutheran Social Services, Dayton, Ohio. On two occasions he served the ALC in executive capacities: as Associate Youth Director (1962–67) and Director of Urban Evangelism (1968–70). Trout died in 1996 at the age of 76. He is commemorated in the

Calendar of Saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

of the

on September 20.

External links

www.wfn.org article
1921 births 1996 deaths Clergy from Columbus, Ohio People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Evangelical Lutheran Church in America bishops 20th-century American Lutheran bishops {{AfricanAmerican-stub