Rt. Rev. Samuel D. Ferguson (1842-1916). First Black Member of the Protestant Episcopal House of Bishops.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Ferguson was taken by his parents to Liberia at the age of six where he was educated in the mission schools and received his theological training.
He was ordained deacon on December 28, 1865, and elected to the priesthood in 1868. In 1881 he both founded the YMCA of Liberia and was consecrated Missionary Bishop of Cape Palmas. In 1885, he was the first African American elevated to the Protestant episcopate.
Bishop Ferguson’s tenure was marked by advances in education, institutional self-sufficiency, and a five-fold growth in congregants. In 1889, he founded Cuttington College, now a major university. Christian Herald, New York, March 18, 1885.