William H. Miles

Bishop William H. Miles.

William Henry Miles (1828-1892) was a founder and the first senior bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, a Methodist denomination formed in 1870 to serve African-American Methodists in the American South. Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama is named in his honor.

Life

Miles was born in Springfield, Kentucky. He was a slave of Mrs. Mary Miles; when she died in 1854, she willed William his freedom (although he was not freed until 1864).^[1]

References

US Black church denominations and leaders General Black church Religion in Black America Historically African-American Christian denominations Clergy Methodist African Methodist Episcopal Church (John Adams, Sr. Richard Allen Sarah Allen Benjamin W. Arnett George Lincoln Blackwell Morris Brown Jamal Harrison Bryant John Richard Bryant Richard H. Cain Archibald Carey, Jr. Daniel Coker James H. Cone James Levert Davis Jordan Winston Early Floyd H. Flake Carolyn Tyler Guidry Sarah E. Gorham William H. Heard Reginald Jackson Henrietta Phelps Jeffries Absalom Jones Ben Kinchlow Vashti Murphy McKenzie Biddy Mason Lena Doolin Mason Robert Meacham Lyman S. Parks Daniel Payne Charles H. Pearce Clementa C. Pinckney William Paul Quinn Reverdy Cassius Ransom Richard Henry Singleton Charles Spencer Smith Theophilus Gould Steward Henry McNeal Turner William Tecumseh Vernon D. Ormonde Walker Lewis Woodson) African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (Julia A. J. Foote Thomas James John Kinard Jermain Wesley Loguen William Henry Singleton John Bryan Small Jeffery Tribble James Varick Alexander Walters) A.U.M.P. Church (Peter Spencer) Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (William Yancy Bell William H. Miles) Baptist National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (Stewart Cleveland Cureton Joseph H. Jackson T. J. Jemison Henry Lyons Benjamin Mays W. J. Simmons) Progressive National Baptist Convention (Ralph Abernathy William Augustus Jones, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gardner C. Taylor) Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Vernon Johns) First African Baptist Church (Richmond, Virginia) (Lucy Goode Brooks) First African Baptist Church (Savannah, Georgia) (David George) First Baptist Church (Petersburg, Virginia) Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship (Paul S. Morton) Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Association Joint National Baptist Convention Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention (Lott Cary Clinton Caldwell Boone) National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. (R. H. Boyd) National Missionary Baptist Convention of America (S. M. Lockridge) National Primitive Baptist Convention of the U.S.A. Silver Bluff Baptist Church United American Free Will Baptist Church (Benjamin Randall) United American Free Will Baptist Conference Pentecostal Church of God in Christ (Charles E. Blake Andraé Crouch Sandra Crouch J. Delano Ellis Robert Michael Franklin, Jr. Samuel Green, Jr. Edwin Hawkins O. T. Jones, Sr. John P. Kee Charles Harrison Mason Chandler David Owens Sr Gilbert E. Patterson J. O. Patterson, Jr. Wayne Perryman Ted Thomas, Sr. F. D. Washington Dickerson Wells Timothy Wright Lennox Yearwood) Apostolic Assemblies of Christ Apostolic Faith Church (William J. Seymour) Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith (Robert C. Lawson) Church of Universal Triumph, Dominion of God (James F. Jones) Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas Mount Sinai Holy Church of America (Ida B. Robinson) Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (Charles H. Ellis III) Reformed Zion Union Apostolic Church United Pentecostal Council of the Assemblies of God, Incorporated United Holy Church of America United Sabbath-Day Adventist Church Other African Orthodox Church (George Alexander McGuire) Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. (Charles Price Jones) Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America City of Refuge UCC (Yvette Flunder) Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation (George Augustus Stallings, Jr.) Interdenominational Theological Center Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge Love Center Church (Walter Hawkins) Original Church of God or Sanctified Church Spencer Churches (Peter Spencer) Spiritual Israel Church and Its Army Trinity United Church of Christ (Otis Moss III) United House of Prayer for All People (Marcelino Manuel da Graca)