Robert Elijah Jones (February 19, 1872 – May 18, 1960) was an American

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

and The Methodist Church in the

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, elected in 1920. Along with Matthew Wesley Clair, Jones was one of the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

Bishops of the M.E. Church.

Biography

Robert E. Jones was born on February 19, 1872, in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

. His parents were Sidney Dallas and Jane (Holley) Jones. Siblings were Minnie Arleta, Jessie and

David Dallas David Keith Dallas (born 28 August 1982) is a hip hop artist from New Zealand of Samoan and European descent. Early career Dallas began his rapping career under the name Con Psy as a part of the duo Frontline, a producer and MC group along wi ...

.Rev Robert Elijah Jones
on

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In 1920, Jones along with

Matthew W. Clair Matthew Wesley Clair (October 21, 1865 – June 28, 1943) was an American minister, and newspaper editor. He was one of the first African-American bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Biography Clair was born on October 21, 1865, in Union, ...

became the first black bishops of the

. However, they were elected on separate ballots and presided over all-black churches. Jones was also the first black to serve as a general superintendent of the entire church. Previously blacks were only allowed to serve in a missionary capacity. He helped found a Methodist retreat, Gulfside Assembly, in

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for African Americans. Gulfside Assembly was the only place in the United States where African Americans had access to the Gulf of Mexico for vacationing and recreational purposes. In the late 1930s, Bishop Jones participated in a unification movement that attempted to integrate the black and white members of the

. Unfortunately, because of strong opposition in the South, the Church decided instead to create a separate jurisdiction for blacks, called the Central Jurisdiction. The first General Conference of the new Central Jurisdiction met in

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, from June 18 to 23, 1940. Bishop Jones died on Wednesday, May 18, 1960, in a

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

hospital. He was buried at Gulfside Assembly on Monday, May 23, 1960. The Methodists would not begin formal integration of the black and white churches until the mid-1960s. By 1972, all of the Conferences of the Central Jurisdiction had been merged into white Conferences.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading