This week in Christian history: Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Althea Brown commissioned as missionary

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, May 12, 2024

Althea Brown commissioned as a missionary – May 14, 1901

A 1902 photo of Althea Brown Edmiston (1874-1937), an African American missionary to the Belgian Congo. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when the Presbyterian Church in the United States commissioned Althea Brown to be a missionary in the Belgian Congo.

Brown was said to have been inspired by the work and words of African American missionary William Sheppard, who called on more Americans to spread Christianity in Africa.

Brown is credited with creating the first dictionary and grammar book for the Bukuta language of Bushoong, as well as helping promote education and publish school books in Bukuta.

In 1921, while on furlough with her husband, Brown gave a speech at the historically black academic institution Fisk University, asking for more people to take up mission work in Africa.

“Africa needs the very best trained men and women that can be found, men and women with sound bodies and trained minds, and with hearts thoroughly consecrated to Christ and His service,” she stated.