"C" is for Cain, Richard Harvey (1825-1887)

"C" is for Cain, Richard Harvey (1825-1887). Minister, abolitionist, legislator. Born a free person of color in Virginia, Cain grew up in Ohio, graduated from Wilberforce University, and by the 1840s was an African Methodist Episcopal minister. In 1865, the denomination sent him to Charleston where he founded Emanuel AME church. From his earliest days in the state, he was involved in politics. Cain helped organize the Republican Party in 1867 and was a delegate to the 1868 Constitutional Convention. He served in the S.C. Senate and twice was elected to represent the   state in the U.S. House of Representatives. With the demise of Reconstruction, he supported the Liberian Exodus movement. In 1880, Richard Harvey Cain was one of the first three men from the South to be elected a bishop in the AME Church.