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An avid belief of his was that Seventh-day Adventist doctrine could provide for the spiritual needs of Black people or any disadvantaged people. Therefore, he did everything in his power to see that his people received a knowledge of the truth and that the Adventist Church did all it could to advance the Black work.

Throughout his long and fruitful ministry, Kinney continued to establish congregations and build churches until his retirement in 1911. Before his death he was blessed to see the Black work expand beyond his highest expectation. Charles Kinney's story is one of struggle, faith, persistence, and eventual triumph. It is another biography that deserves to be told.

Implications for Today

The story of African-American roots in the Adventist Church in the United States contains all the drama and pathos of the best narratives. And though this chapter of early Adventist history closes with 1910, the effects of its ground-breaking ministry are felt today. The people and events of these early years give perspective to the succeeding chapters of B lack work today--work that has grown throughout North America and around the world. And in light of the diversity and cultural dilemmas of our day, this period could be among the most instructive in Adventist Church history. It highlights areas that provide helpful insights and lessons for today.

Areas that could yield profitable study include: (1) Ellen White's influence as a change agent in the Adventist organization; (2) ways the church addressed itself to the sensitive issues of race and inclusiveness in its early years; (3) organizational lessons the church today can learn from the Southern work; (4) how the church started and supported work in a new and developing field. The list could go on.

There is more that we can learn from how God directed affairs in the past. We thank God for what He has done. "We have nothing to fear . . . except as we shall forget..."

Major Developments in the Black Work

BY DELBERT W. BAKER

1. Production and sale by Edson White of the Gospel Primer, the first educational text for Black mission schools (1893).

2. Building and launching of the Morning Star steamboat (1894).

3. Organization of the Southern Missionary Society (1895).

4. Mission schools and mentoring programs started across the South (1895).

5. Oakwood College founded (1896).

6. Gospel Herald journal begins publication (1898).

7. Business enterprises started in connection with the Black work (1898), such as the Dixie Health Food Company and Missionary Enterprises, an independent Adventist organization that provided creative ways to raise money for the Black work.

8. Medical missionary work in the South begins to receive special emphasis (1899).

9. Nashville becomes the center of the Southern work (1900).

10. Ellen White visited the Adventist work in the South in 1901 (she again visited the South and also Oakwood College in 1904). Visits provided encouragement and impetus to the Black work and provided Ellen White with firsthand knowledge.

11. Herald Publishing Company (1900), later Southern Publishing Association (1901), begins.

12. Southern Missionary Society merges into the Southern Union Conference (1901).

13. Nashville Colored Sanitarium founded (1901).

14. Black leaders and laypersons begin to migrate to all parts of the U.S. (circa 1902).

15. North American Negro Department of the General Conference created (1910).

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