Channing Heggie Tobias (February 1, 1882 in

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...

– November 5, 1961 in

Manhattan, NY Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

) was a civil rights activist and 1948 Spingarn Medalist. In 1946 he was appointed to the

President's Committee on Civil Rights The President's Committee on Civil Rights was a United States presidential commission established by President Harry Truman in 1946. The committee was created by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946, and instructed to investigate the status o ...

. He has been called "the

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

of his day". Tobias was orphaned young, brought up by a widowed friend of his mother's. He attended public schools in Augusta. He received his BA from

Paine College Paine College is a private, historically black Methodist college in Augusta, Georgia. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Paine College offers undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts, bu ...

in 1902 and went on to Drew Seminary. He was ordained in the

Colored ''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow Era to refer to an African American. In many places, it may be considered a slur, though it has taken on a special meaning in Sout ...

Methodist Episcopal Church in 1911. Tobias was on the faculty of Paine College for six years, teaching biblical literature. From 1911 to 1946 he was active in the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

and race-related issues involving it. While chairman of the committee on race relations for the 1937 YMCA World Conference in India he met

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. In addition he was on the board of trustees of the NAACP and later became its chairman. In 1945, Tobias participated in the development of the New York State Fair Employment Law, and the following year he became director of the

Phelps-Stokes Fund The Phelps Stokes Fund (PS) is a nonprofit fund established in 1911 by the will of New York philanthropist Caroline Phelps Stokes, a member of the Phelps Stokes family. Created as the Trustees of Phelps Stokes Fund, it connects emerging leade ...

. In 1951, he was an alternate delegate to the General Assembly of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

meeting in 1951. When he became NAACP chairman in 1953, Tobias launched the Fight for Freedom Fund to eliminate state-imposed racial segregation by the time of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. He resigned from the New York State Commission Against Discrimination in protest at the slowness of passing anti-discrimination legislation. Tobias was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.Famous Alphas
He was the first African-American awarded an honorary degree from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, and received honorary degrees from the Theological Institute (Georgia), Morehouse College, the

Jewish Institute of Religion The Jewish Institute of Religion was an educational establishment created by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in 1922 in New York City. While generally incorporating Reform Judaism, it was separate from the previously established Hebrew Union College. It so ...

, and the New School for Social Research.

Literature

* Autobiographical essay in Finkelstein, L. (ed.) ''Thirteen Americans: Their Spiritual Autobiographies'', Institute for Religious and Social Science, 1953, pp. 177–200
BlackPast.org
entry

Web sources

External links

American Methodist clergy People from Augusta, Georgia 1882 births 1961 deaths Spingarn Medal winners YMCA leaders 20th-century Methodist ministers Methodists from Georgia (U.S. state) {{AfricanAmerican-stub