"Richard Harvey Cain" (April 12, 1825-January 18, 1887)

Was born free in Greenbrier County,Virginia.With limited opportunities available to free African Americans, his parents moved to Gallipolis,in 1831,hoping  for more rights than those available in a slave state.Richard attended segregated primary schools established by blacks in Ohio.He also attended Wilberforce University in Ohio, the first institution of higher learning founded by Africans Americans in the United States.Ohio also offered work on steamboats traveling its major rivers. An ambitious young man,Richard appealed to him as a matter of conscience;it also offered him the prospect of going as far as his talents would allow. He entered the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal (ME) church in 1844.His first assignment was in a church in Hannibal,Missouri, a slave holding state.He remained there until 1848, but became disillusioned with ministering in a white congregation that followed a policy of racial segregation. Richard finally left the ME Church,and joined the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, founded by Richard Allen, a black clergyman.The switch benefited Cain in several ways. It offered leadership opportunities, including the prospect of becoming a pastor, and the chance of advancing in church governance. Richard served as pastor of an AME congregation in Muscatine, Iowa, and by 1859 had become an ordained bishop.During the 1860s he relocated to New York to become the pastor of a church in Brooklyn.He also became involved in the civic and political affairs of the community.In 1864,he attended a political convention in New York, organized by African Americans.Once the war,ended, he moved to South Carolina, as a missionary in the AME church,the only state in the nation with a black majority.That state's large black population offered him greater opportunities for religious service;it also launched his political career during Congressional Reconstruction.Richard settled in historic Charleston. He along with other leaders in the AME church,established new congregations throughout South Carolina.Bishop Cain also assumed leadership of Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston,a congregation that had an impressive history,