Robert Elijah Jones (February 19, 1872 – May 18, 1960) was an American

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

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 ...

and The Methodist Church in the

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, elected in 1920. Along with Matthew Wesley Clair, Jones was one of the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

Bishops of the M.E. Church.

Biography

Robert E. Jones was born on February 19, 1872, in

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. In 1920, Jones along with Matthew W. Clair became the first black bishops of the

. However, they were elected on separate ballots and presided over all-black churches. Jones was also the first black to serve as a general superintendent of the entire church. Previously blacks were only allowed to serve in a missionary capacity. He helped found a Methodist retreat, Gulfside Assembly, in

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for African Americans. Gulfside Assembly was the only place in the United States where African Americans had access to the Gulf of Mexico for vacationing and recreational purposes. In the late 1930s, Bishop Jones participated in a unification movement that attempted to integrate the black and white members of the

. Unfortunately, because of strong opposition in the South, the Church decided instead to create a separate jurisdiction for blacks, called the Central Jurisdiction. The first General Conference of the new Central Jurisdiction met in

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, from June 18 to 23, 1940. Bishop Jones died on Wednesday, May 18, 1960, in a

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hospital. He was buried at Gulfside Assembly on Monday, May 23, 1960. The Methodists would not begin formal integration of the black and white churches until the mid-1960s. By 1972, all of the Conferences of the Central Jurisdiction had been merged into white Conferences.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading