Charles H. Wesley

Charles H. Wesley
Born	Charles H. Wesley December 2, 1891(1891-12-02) Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Died	August 16, 1987(1987-08-16) (aged 95) District of Columbia
Occupation	Historian, Author
Nationality	Black American
Period	1925–1987
Genres	History
Notable work(s)	Prince Hall Life and Legacy

Charles Harris Wesley (December 2, 1891 – August 16, 1987) was a noted African American historian, educator, writer and author.

Early life and education

Charles Wesley was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the only child of Matilda and Charles Snowden Wesley. He attended local schools as a boy, and went on to graduate from Fisk University in 1911. He subsequently earned a Master's degree from Yale University in 1913, and in 1925, Wesley became the fourth African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard University.^[1] He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity in 1928 by Wilberforce University.^[2]

Career

Wesley was an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). After serving as the Dean of the Liberal Arts and the Graduate School at Howard University, in 1942 he was called to serve as President of Wilberforce University (an AME affiliated university) in Wilberforce, Ohio until 1947. It was in that year that he went on to found Central State University across the street from Wilberforce University and where he would serve as president until he moved back to Washington, D.C. in 1965.^[2]

In 1965, Wesley became the Director of Research and Publications for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He was Executive Director from 1965–1972, later becoming Executive Director Emeritus'. In 1976, he became Director of the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia. He was also a life member of the American Historical Association.^[2]

Wesley was the 14th and a five-term General President and later National Historian for seven decades of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established by and for African Americans. He wrote The History of Alpha Phi Alpha in 1929, and many new editions. Wesley is also a member of Sigma Pi Phi, the first of all Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLO). He was also a Prince Hall Freemason, a Sovereign Grand Inspector General (33rd Degree) of the United Supreme Council (Southern Jurisdiction, Prince Hall); a member of the Odd Fellows, Sigma Pi Phi (the Boule), Elks, and many other fraternal organizations.^[2]

Wesley died on August 16, 1987, in Washington, D.C. at 12:35 am, and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Suitland, Maryland.^[2]

Awards

He was the recipient of numerous awards, including

• Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930/31
• Phi Beta Kappa Key in 1953
• Scottish Rite Gold Medal Award in 1957
• Amistad Award in 1972.
• Honorary doctorates from numerous universities

Books

African-American history

• Negro Labor in the United States, 1850–1925 (1927)
• Richard Allen, Apostle of Freedom (1935)
• Collapse of the Confederacy (1937)
• The Negro in the Americas (1940)
• Negro Makers of History (5th edition) with Carter G. Woodson (1958)
• The Story of the Negro Retold with Carter G. Woodson (1959)
• The Negro in Our History with Carter G. Woodson(1962)
• Ohio Negroes in the Civil War (1962)
• Neglected History: Essays in Negro History (1965)
• Negro Americans in the Civil War: From Slavery to Citizenship (1967)
• International Library of Negro Life and History, a ten volume set (1967).
• In Freedom's Footsteps: From the African Background to the Civil War (1968)
• The Quest for Equality: From Civil War to Civil Rights (1968)
• Negro Citizenship in the United States: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Negro-American, Its Concepts and Developments, 1868–1968 (1968)
• The Fifteenth Amendment and Black America, 1870–1970 (1970)
• Women Builders with Sadie Iola Daniel and Thelma D. Perry (1970)

Greek-letter fraternity

• The History of Alpha Phi Alpha: A Development in Negro College Life (1929)
• The History of Sigma Pi Phi (1954)
• Henry Arthur Callis, Life and Legacy (1977)

Prince Hall Freemasonry

• The History of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Ohio (1961 and 1972)
• Prince Hall: A Life and Legacy (1977)

Other professional and fraternal organizations

• History of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, 1898–1954 (1955)
• The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs: A Legacy of Service (1984).

References

1. ^ Grand Lodge of British Columbia & Yukon. "Charles H. Wesley". Accessed August 18, 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Proceedings of the 139th Communication of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio, F&AM, August 8 and 9, 1988, Toledo, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio: Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio. 1989. pp. 139–140. 

External links

Biography portal

• Charles H. Wesley, "The Struggle for the Recognition of Haiti and Liberia as Independent Republics", The Journal of Negro History – Vol II—October, 1917—No. 4, online at The Louverture Project
• Charles H. Wesley at Find a Grave

Preceded by Bert A. Rose

General President of Alpha Phi Alpha 1932–1940

Succeeded by Rayford Logan

Persondata
Name	Wesley, Charles H.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 2, 1891
Place of birth
Date of death	August 16, 1987
Place of death