Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire: His Life and Work

by Lawrence Foushee London

It will be remembered that while rector of St. Peter's, Bishop Cheshire had established in Charlotte a mission for Negroes, St. Michael and All Angels. Shortly after it was well started, Rev. Primus P. Alston, a colored priest, was placed in charge of the mission. Alston was an energetic and progressive man. He soon began a manual-training school for Negro boys and girls, which he called St. Michael's Industrial School. In time he erected buildings at a cost of about eight thousand dollars, raising almost all of the money by himself. After some twenty years of splendid work as head of this school, Rev. Mr. Alston died in 1910. Bishop Cheshire at once decided that something must be done to preserve the valuable work which Alston had carried on so successfully. Realizing the high regard which the people of Charlotte had for the man and his work, the Bishop determined to lay the question of the future of St. Michael's School before a body of representative citizens of Charlotte in the hope of making it a civic enterprise, irrespective of denominational interests but still under the official administration of the diocesan bishop. Acting upon this decision, the Bishop called together in Charlotte a group of progressive men representing different denominations. He pointed out that the school was the property of the Diocese of North Carolina, that it had for more than twenty years done a great work for the community, and that no religious test was made an entrance requirement, although religious training was a part of the school's work. The Bishop then asked the group if it would act with him as a board of managers for the direction and maintenance of the school. The men displayed a sympathetic interest, and promised to co-operate with him in any plan for making permanent the work of the institution. The Bishop thereupon organized the Board of Managers of St. Michael's Industrial School, under whose control it continued to operate.

When Bishop Cheshire met his diocesan convention in 1912, he reported what he had done and asked for its endorsement of his action and its assent to the new plan for operating the school. The convention confirmed the Bishop's work and consented to his plan for continuing St. Michael's School. Thus, by his promptness and resourcefulness, he preserved for the church and the community of Charlotte a valuable institution.

Bishop Cheshire's work among the Negroes of his Diocese received recognition from the national church when, in 1911, he was elected chairman of the Advisory Council of the American Church Institute for Negroes. The Institute had been organized in 1906 for the purpose of aiding the larger Episcopal schools for Negroes, such as St. Augustine's, the Bishop Payne Divinity School, and others. From this time forward he received a number of invitations to speak in the dioceses of the North on various phases of the church's work among the Negroes of the South. One of his most interesting addresses on this subject was made before the Woman's Auxiliary of the Diocese of Long Island at its annual meeting in 1915.

In this address the Bishop declared that the fact the Negro was increasing in population meant to him that "God is not done with him. He has something for him to do." The Negro had not only survived his contact with a higher civilization, but had made in it a place for himself. "Protected and trained by his two and a half centuries of American slavery, the greatest blessing which up to this time he has ever known," the Negro had lived through emancipation and the "incalculable injustice of his premature enfranchisement." He was turning from false political and social aspirations and attempting to lay sound foundations for his moral and material development. Referring to the religion of the Negro, Bishop Cheshire observed that he found it very little different from that of the white man. He spoke of the Negro's gift of religious emotion, which might be dangerous, "yet it is a gift; and it is needed to give power and life to faith." The Bishop declared that the church set up a standard for the Negro to live by, it acknowledged him as a brother, and it gave him a definite place in its organization.

In answer to the question of what the Woman's Auxiliary could do for the Negro, Bishop Cheshire replied it should try to teach the colored churches to support themselves and to be willing and able to aid others. As for a particular work the organization could undertake, he emphasized the importance of hospital care. This was a vital need and one which the Negro by himself could not supply.[52]

The address was well received, although a few of the ideas contained in it were doubtless a little disturbing to some of the listeners. The Bishop was fearless in expressing his convictions, and was ever ready to defend them when necessary.

St. Augustine's School for Negroes was founded in 1867 by North Carolina churchmen. It was built and maintained, however, by northern churchmen and agencies. While the school was not a diocesan institution, Bishop Cheshire throughout his episcopate gave it his full co-operation and support. He had a personal interest in the school, for his father had been one of the original incorporators. As ex-officio president of the Board of Trustees he kept in close contact with the development of St. Augustine's. Realizing that his state benefited most from the school, Bishop Cheshire time and time again urged his people to give it every encouragement and assistance within their means.

In appreciation of his services to St. Augustine's, the authorities of the school resolved to name a proposed new building for Bishop Cheshire. Of this decision, the presiding bishop, John Gardner Murray, remarked: "I can conceive of nothing more splendid that the Church or community could do than to erect at St. Augustine's a building in honor of Bishop Cheshire. The work itself is most deserving in every way, and the Bishop whose name you propose to have associated with it, is one of the greatest Bishops in our Church in his every relationship thereto."[53]

The dedication of the Cheshire Building at St. Augustine's College took place on Bishop Cheshire's eightieth birthday, March 27, 1930. In the course of the ceremony the Bishop delivered an address in which he traced the history of St. Augustine's from its establishment as a simple normal school to its present collegiate status. He touched upon the development of Negro education in the South since 1865, and emphasized the importance of this fact in the growth of a better relationship between the races. St. Augustine's, said the Bishop, in a larger sense represents the church's attitude towards the Negro problem in America and what it has done to solve that problem.

Dr. A. B. Hunter, principal of the school for twenty-five years, made a short talk in which he spoke of the Bishop's loyal support of St. Augustine's. He ascribed much of the institution's success to the "unfailing sympathy and material assistance of the Bishop." Towards the end of the ceremony a portrait of Bishop Cheshire, hanging in the hall of the new building, was unveiled.