"S" is for Spencer, James Alexander (1850-1911

"S" is for Spencer, James Alexander (1850-1911). Legislator, educator. Spencer was born in Charleston, the son of free persons of color. He acquired a good education and, like his parents, was a practicing Roman Catholic. From 1874 to 1876 he represented Abbeville County in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Returning to Charleston, Spencer became the principal black Catholic in the city. He was resolute in his conviction that blacks and whites should be treated equally in the church. Denied membership in the white-dominated Charleston branch of the Catholic Knights of America, he organized a separate branch for blacks. Spencer played a leading role in the national black Catholic lay congresses held from 1889-1894—deploring the establishment of special churches for blacks. James Alexander Spencer was president of the fourth Catholic lay congress, held in Chicago in 1893.