Lena Doolin Mason (May 6, 1864 – August 28, 1924) was an American

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

and poet.

Biography

Lena Doolin was born on May 6, 1864 in Quincy, Illinois to Vaughn and Relda Doolin. She joined the congregation of

Hannibal, Missouri Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,312, making it the largest city in Marion County. The bulk of the city is in Mar ...

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

in 1872. She attended Douglass High School in Hannibal and Professor Knott's School in Chicago. In 1883, she married George Mason. Their daughter was the only one of their six children to survive to adulthood. When she was 23, Mason entered the

ministry Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

, preaching exclusively to white people for her first three years. Mason was a noted orator. During her career, she was a member of the Colored Conference and preached in "nearly every state in the Union." Mason also wrote songs and composed poetry. Only two of her poems are extant, "A Negro in It," written in response to the Assassination of William McKinley, and "The Negro in Education." For the latter poem, she subverted the standard pro-slavery argument that education makes people unfit to be slaves.

References

*Curry, Ora Anderson. "Uncrowned Queen." ''African American Women: Community Builders of Western New York''. *Hine, Darlene Clarke. ''Black Women in America, A–L.'' Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Publishing, 1993. *Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. ''The African American National Biography.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Lena Doolin 1864 births 1924 deaths African Methodist Episcopal Church clergy People from Quincy, Illinois People from Hannibal, Missouri American women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American clergy Poets from Illinois Poets from Missouri 19th-century American clergy Religious leaders from Illinois Religious leaders from Missouri

Biography

References

Further reading