The history of Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church is so grand and glorious that the essence of its greatness can never be fully captured or retold. So many courageous, dedicated and visionary men and women have made immeasurable contributions to this bright “Star of Zion” that only small highlights can be shared.
1884-1911
Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church was organized in the backyard of Mrs. Mary Ann Hunter after pulling out from the old Clinton Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church in 1884. The first church in reality was a little house sitting on a rock, hence the name, Little Rock. The original church property was purchased for a sum of four hundred and twenty five dollars on May 31, 1884 (corrected deed filed June 10, 1893). In 1906, under the pastorate of Rev. W.R. Douglas, the frame structure was moved across Seventh Street. The moving process was so slow that services and even a funeral were conducted while the church was in the middle of the street. The brick edifice, which is now the Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Community Development Center, was completed in 1911 under the administration of Rev. Douglas.
1912-1981
The edifice was a blended manifestation of the turn of the century Greek and Romanesque architectural style. J. M. McMichael, was the architect of several imposing buildings in this community including Spirit Square, St. John’s Baptist Church, and Myers Park Presbyterian Church. The old Little Rock Church building is a remarkable remainder of an exuberant expression of faith and commitment of God’s people to God’s glory. The new Sanctuary and Educational wing were completed in October 1981. Rev. William White led members and friends in a reverent and stately procession from the Old Little Rock Church into the new edifice on Sunday, December 6, 1981. Clinton E. Gravely, an American of African descent, was the designer of this building. His trademark of exposed wood and natural stone is prominent in the present place of worship.
1982-Present
In May 2008, the groundbreaking celebration for the addition to the Little Rock campus was held under the pastorate of Dr. Dwayne A. Walker. Little Rock has been truly blessed with ardent and eloquent pastors of which two became bishops, Bishop J. C. Hoggard and Bishop George J. Leake, III. After Bishop Leake assumed the Episcopacy, Rev. William White was appointed as pastor, erecting the present building. Dr. James R. Samuel followed Rev. William White, making improvements to the Church and Educational Wing. In 2005, Dr. Dwayne A. Walker was appointed pastor and has since regained possession of the old church building, established plans to add a Family Life Center and provided leadership to facilitate a partnership between the Little Rock Community Development Corporation and the Charlotte City Council to build affordable housing on the campus.
Former Pastors Elected Bishop in the A.M.E. Zion Church
Bishop George Wylie Clinton
GEORGE WYLIE CLINTON was born in Cedar Creek Township, Lancaster County, South Carolina, on March 28, 1859, to Jonathan and Rachel (Patterson) Clinton who was a slave. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother in the home of his grandparents. After attending school in Lancaster, South Carolina, he won a $200 scholarship for four years to the University of South Carolina, then open to all residents of the state. He completed his sophomore year, but in 1876 the new governor, Wade Hampton, threw African American students out of USC. Clinton then began to read law with a local lawyer but became interested in the ministry. (Bradley 1970, p. 389)
He was licensed to preach on February 14, 1879 and joined the South Carolina Conference in November, 1880. While pastoring a church in Chester, South Carolina, Rev. Clinton completed his college work at Brainard Institute in Chester. He also studied theology at Livingstone College and received an A. M. degree in 1893. (Maser 1974, p. 525) Rev. Clinton preached and taught school until he was appointed by Bishop Singleton T. Jones to Old John Wesley in Pittsburgh. He was ordained a deacon November 5, 1882
and an elder November 8, 1885. While serving in Pittsburgh, he founded the A.M.E. Zion Quarterly Review, which he ran at his own expense for two years before turning it over to the General Conference. In 1892, Rev. Clinton was elected editor of the Star of Zion, a position he held until he was consecrated a bishop on May 21, 1896. The publication moved to Charlotte, North Carolina during his editorship. He was considered a “systematic editor” and “a lofty coiner of living phrases.”
In 1897, Bishop Clinton journeyed West and established churches in Seattle and Spokane, Washington, and Kingman, Arizona. Through his efforts, by 1900, the California Conference (which then embraced California, Oregon, Washington and the Arizona Territory) grew from one church with eleven worshipers to thirteen well-established churches. Bishop Clinton was also one of those responsible for Zion’s massive growth in North Carolina in the early 1900s.
Bishop Clinton married three times. One of his children, Willie Clinton, became a physician and practiced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bishop Clinton’s first wife, Mrs. Eliza Clinton, served as vice president of the Woman’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society before he was elected bishop. She died August 26, 1892. He married Mrs. Annie Kimball Clinton, on May 30, 1898 (Maser 1974, p. 525). She also served as a vice president during his early episcopacy. She died June 1, 1899. His third wife, Mrs. Marie Louise Clay Clinton, was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1871. She was an accomplished singer and a vice principal of a school in Huntsville when they married on February 6, 1901. In 1904, she was chosen to head Zion’s Juvenile Missionary Society ( renamed the Buds of Promise Department in 1908) and served in that capacity until her death on January 9, 1932. Bishop Clinton died May 12, 1921, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Last rites were held at Little Rock Church in Charlotte, where he once was pastor and member.
Bishop Robert Blair Bruce
ROBERT BLAIR BRUCE was born on June 26, 1861, at Charlie Hope, Brunswick County, Virginia. He grew up on a farm in his home town and was permitted to go to school on rainy days. He was raised by his grandmother and an uncle. Aspiring to a better education, he walked to and from the nearest school of importance, which was seven miles away in Lawrenceville, until he finished its course of study. Bruce was scarcely more than ten when he converted and joined Solomon’s Temple in Charlie Hope, Virginia. He joined the Virginia Conference in 1884 and was ordained by Bishop J. W. Hood in Petersburg, Virginia while he was a student at Payne Divinity School in that city. After completing his studies at Payne, he transferred to the Western North Carolina Conference and was the pastor of the Zion church in Winston-Salem for two years. In 1894, he went to Grace Church, Charlotte, served for five years and began the building of its present edifice. He also was the pastor of Little Rock Church, Charlotte, for one year, and Soldiers Memorial, Salisbury, for two years.
When Rev. Robert R. Morris, the first general superintendent of A.M.E. Zion Sunday Schools, died in 1895, Rev. Bruce was appointed acting superintendent for the remainder of Rev. Morris’s term. In 1900, Rev. Bruce was elected by the General Conference as editor of the Sunday School Literature office. While he was editor, he
commuted to Livingstone College and taught part-time. In 1908, he reported to the General Conference that 96,000 picture lesson cards, 480,000 junior lesson quarterlies, 48,000 teacher’s journals and 250,000 catechisms were sent out during the quadrennium. He held the editorship until he was consecrated bishop on May 19, 1916.
As bishop he did constructive work in South Carolina and Georgia and set the Pee Dee Conference aside from the South Carolina Conference in 1919.
He was married to the former Miss Henrietta Foster. Bishop Bruce died July 9, 1920. He was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Charlotte, North Carolina following final rights at Grace Church in Charlotte.
Bishop James Clinton Hoggard, Sr.
JAMES CLINTON HOGGARD, SR., was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on August 9, 1916, to the Rev. Jeremiah Matthew and Symera Cherry Hoggard. He is one of seven children, five brothers and one sister. He attended public schools in New Jersey and earned his A. B. degree from Rutgers University in 1939 and an M. Div. degree in 1942 from Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
He was admitted to the traveling ministry in the New York Annual Conference, held at Fleet Street Memorial (First A. M. E. Zion) Brooklyn, N. Y., in June, 1939, Bishop L.W. Kyles, presiding bishop. In November, 1940, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop L.
W. Kyles at Hood Memorial Church, located then on Lenox Avenue in New York City. He was ordained an elder by Bishop W. J. Walls in June, 1942, at the New York Annual Conference held in Troy, New York.
Rev. Hoggard pastored St. Francis A.M.E. Zion, Mount Kisco; Institutional A.M.E. Zion, Yonkers, both of New York; Little Rock A.M.E. Zion, Charlotte, North Carolina; Trinity A.M.E. Zion, Washington, D.C. (interim); and Greater Centennial A.M.E.
Zion, Mount Vernon, New York (interim).
He was secretary-treasurer of the Department of Foreign Missions and editor of the Missionary Seer, from 1952-72. He was elected and consecrated the 70th Bishop on May 12, 1972 at the 39th General Conference held in Mobile, Alabama. As bishop he presided
over the Indiana, Kentucky, North Alabama, East Tennessee-Virginia, Western New York, Philadelphia-Baltimore, Jamaica, West Indies, Barbados, Bahamas, Guyana, South America and London-Birmingham Conferences. He served two terms as president of the
Board of Bishops.
Widely affiliated in ecumenical and civic affairs, Bishop Hoggard was a member of the executive committees of the World Council of Churches and the Consultation on Church Union. He was a member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Governing Board, and was president of the Interfaith Conference, Washington, D.C. He was a member of the the Indiana and Kentucky State Council of Churches, the Religious Public Relations Council, the Congress of National Black Churches, and the Council of Churches of the Greater Washington, D.C. He is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union; a life member of the NAACP, the Urban League of Greater Washington, D.C., and of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He served on the spiritual aims committee of the Lawrence Club of Kiwanis. He is a member of Sigma Pi Phi Boule’ Fraternity and a former member of the U.S. Conference of the World Council of Churches Executive Board.
Bishop Hoggard was married in 1949 to the former Eva W. Stanton, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mrs. Hoggard died February 12, 1997. They had two sons: J. Clinton, Jr.,a professional vibraphonist and associate professor of music, Wesleyan University, and the Rev. Dr. Paul Stanton, an A.M.E. Zion minister; two grandchildren, Jamal and Kalila, and daughters-in-law Donna Dinkins-Hoggard and Dr. Debra Jeffries Hoggard.
Bishop George Junius Leake, III
GEORGE JUNIUS LEAKE, III, was born in Wilson, North Carolina, November 21, 1929. He completed his first degree at Livingstone College in 1957 and earned a B.D from Hood Theological Seminary in 1960.
He entered the traveling ministry in 1950 before he enrolled in Livingstone College. He was ordained a deacon in November 1951 and an elder November 15. 1953. He was pastor of the following A.M.E. Zion Churches: Shelby and Pleasant Ridge, Gastonia, both in North Carolina; Durham Memorial, Buffalo, New York; and Little Rock, Charlotte, North Carolina, from which he was elected and consecrated the 75th Bishop on May 12, 1972 at the 39th General Conference meeting in Mobile, Alabama.
As bishop he presided over the California, Colorado, Missouri, Oregon-Washington, Southwest Rocky Mountain, and Alaska Conferences of the A.M.E. Zion Church. (Official Journal, 40th Quad. Sess. Gen. Conf.) and the Cape Fear Conference following the death of Bishop H. B. Shaw in 1980.
He served the denomination as a member of the Budget and Apportionment Committee that proposed a new budget to the 1964 General Conference. He was a member of the Board of Publications led by Bishop Stewart that was responsible for oversight of the new Varick Memorial Publishing House erected in Charlotte, North
Carolina. He directed the effort to establish the Little Rock A. M. E. Zion Church Apartments in Charlotte, North Carolina that were part of government and church efforts to meet low and middle-income housing needs.
He was a freedom rider during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Bishop Leake died June 15, 1981. He was married to Vilma Louise Dew Leake. They had two daughters: Dierdra J. (deceased) and Yolanda Georgetta Leake.
Bishop Dr. Dwayne A. Walker
Bishop Dwayne Anthony Walker was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He later moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he received his early education in the Chicago Public Schools. He is a graduate of Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina where he received the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science.
After accepting the call to preach, he enrolled at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. While a student, he served as Assistant Pastor for Youth and Young Adult Ministry at John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church in Washington, D.C.
He received the Master of Divinity Degree in 1989 and in June that year, he was appointed Pastor of Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in Detroit, Michigan. In November of 1994, Bishop Walker was appointed to serve as Pastor of Jones Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion Church, Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition to serving as Pastor of Jones Tabernacle, Bishop Walker served as Administrator of Kuumba Horizons Child Development Center. He was also a member of the board of Celebration of Hope, member of the board of Volunteers of America and a member of the Advisory Board of United Negro College Fund. In May 2004, Bishop Walker received the Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C.
In September of 2005, he was appointed as pastor of Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church, Charlotte, North Carolina. Bishop Walker currently serves as a member of The Board of Trustees of Livingstone College, The Board of Dorothy Walls Conference and Retreat Center, member of The Black Political Caucus, The NAACP, the Chairman of the Little Rock Community Development Corporation, a former member of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission and Vice Chair of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee.
Bishop Walker is the son of Retired Bishop and Mrs. George W.C. Walker, Sr. He is married to Mrs. Donna Smith-Walker. He is the proud father of four beautiful daughters, DeAndra, Dana, Daivene and Deborah. Bishop Walker has one grandson Dylan Amir and three granddaughters, Meliya Geneva Ghee, Aila Elise Cannon and Aria Cannon.