Historically Black College
Bishop Monroe Franklin Jamison
Autobiography and Work of Bishop M. F. Jamison
1848-1918).
Monroe Franklin Jamison, bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church (later the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church), son of George
and Lethia Shorter, was born into slavery near Rome, Georgia, on
November 27, 1848. At age twelve he was sold to Robert Jamison of
Talladega, Alabama. By 1870 he had begun his career as a Methodist
minister in Alabama. Monroe Jamison moved to Texas in 1872, settling in
Marshall. He and several other black Methodist preachers who had moved
to Texas from Alabama soon divided the area around Marshall into Colored
Methodist Episcopal circuits known as Black Jack Circuit, Hilliard
Circuit, Center Circuit, and Antioch Circuit. Jamison, the best known of
this group of circuit-riding ministers, was noted for his ability to
preach in the "Alabama style," an old-fashioned jubilant style
of preaching that appealed to the poor. A staunch defender of the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, he was nicknamed Fighting Joe for
his readiness to debate doctrine with clergy from other churches.
Jamison joined the East Texas Conference of the Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church under Bishop Isaac Lane in 1873 and was assigned to the
Marshall and Longview stations. He married Minerva A. Flinnoy on January
14 of the following year. In February 1875 he was appointed to serve in
Dallas. That year under his pastorate the first Colored Methodist
Episcopal church was built in that city. At the 1876 Colored Methodist
Episcopal annual conference in Dallas, Jamison was promoted to presiding
elder. In 1908 Jamison earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Texas
College. Later he established other churches throughout the North Texas
area. Jamison also edited the Christian Index, the official organ
of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Christian Advocate,
a church paper published by the East Texas Conference. He was appointed
bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in 1910 and served
until his death eight years later. In 1912 Jamison published an account
of his life's work, entitled The Autobiography and Work of Bishop M.
F. Jamison ("Uncle Joe"). He died at Leigh
(Harrison County), Texas, on May 19, 1918, and was buried in the
Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Jamison
Handbook of Texas Online, s.v.
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