OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : RICHARD HENRY BOYD

It is rather odd that so many Black People who consider themselves “BLACK BAPTIST” know about The National Baptist Convention, but aren’t aware of the “Two Separate Splits” of the National Baptist Convention{ one occurring in 1915, and a second in 1961 }. The split in 1915 resulted in the formation and incorporation of “two separate” National Baptist Conventions”( one was incorporated in 1915 as The National Baptist Convention of America, while the other one was incorporated in 1916 as The National Baptist Convention USA,INC. ). While the split in 1961 was largely due to a disagreement over “The Issue Of Civil Rights,” and resulted in Martin Luther King Jr and his allies leaving the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. to form The Progressive National Baptist Convention. The main thing involving the split and controversy in 1915 had to do with “The National Baptist Publishing Board.” Well, it was at the 1895 annual meeting of The National Baptist Convention[ held in St Louis, Missouri ] that a Black gentleman by the name of Richard Henry Boyd approached Elias C Morris{ who was the president of The National Baptist Convention at the time } with the idea of starting a publishing board for the Black Baptist Organization. Mr Elias agreed to support Richard’s idea, but told him that the National Baptist Convention was in no position to fund the project.Therefore, Richard decided he would come up with the money himself! Using real-estate that he owned in Texas for collateral, Richard was able to acquire the necessary funds to begin the project. In 1896, he moved to Nashville,Tennessee, and with the assistance from the White Southern Baptist Convention( which too had its main publishing operations in Nashville ), he was able to get the ball rolling! Initially, the National Baptist Publishing Board was only printing the National Baptist Magazine. Then in 1897, it began publishing the new Teacher's Monthly[ the same year, the publishing board was not only showing a profit, but had distributed more than 180,000 copies of published materials ]. The following year{ probably since he had used his own money to finance the publishing board }, Richard decided to incorporate the National Baptist Publishing Board, under a Tennessee state charter. Under the charter, the Publishing Board was to be owned by Richard Henry Boyd and governed by a regular board of trustees. Wow, who knew that by 1906, the National Baptist Publishing Board would became the principal source of religious publications for Black Baptists worldwide( and be the largest Negro Publishing Company in the United States at the time )! The National Baptist Publishing Board business employed approximately 110 workers[ it also issued more than 128 million periodicals, and is credited with being the first publisher of the old songs of Negro slaves ]. Richard Henry Boyd was born on March 15, 1843 in Noxubee County, Mississippi{ reminder : since he was born into slavery at the B.A. Plantation , as customary in those times, he took the surname of his master, which was Gray }. His mother’s was a Negro female named Indiana Dixon. She had originally named her son, Dick Gray. Rumor had it that one of the three Gray brothers was Richard’s father( his mother never told him which brother ). Several interesting things about Richard were : he didn’t learn how to read and write until he was 22[ he hired a White girl to teach him as well as using the reference books : the Webster’s Blue -Backed Speller, along with McGuffey’s First Reader ], he changed his name to Richard Henry Boyd when he was 24, he was baptized when he was 26, and he was ordained as a minister when he was 28 years old. Also, Richard served as pastor of a host of churches in the state of Texas. To his credit, he helped organize the first Black Baptist Association in Texas{ the Texas Negro Baptist Convention }. Along with founding the National Baptist Publishing Board, Richard Henry Boyd helped found The National Baptist Church Supply Company, The Only Black-Owned Public StreetCar Transit System( The Union Transportation Company in Nashville, Tennessee that resulted from the forgotten street car boycott in 1905-1906), The Nation Negro Doll Company, and most importantly he helped found The First Black-Owned Bank in Nashville, Tennesse[ The One-Cent Savings and Trust Company Bank ; the bank is currently operating as Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company ]. The One-Cent Bank was originally started and expressly intended to serve the financial needs of Negro depositors! Furthermore, the founders believed that White-owned banks looked down on their small deposits. Please Note : Between 1888 and 1934, there were 134 “BLACK-OWNED” Banks to help the “BLACK COMMUNITY.”{ Today, there are only 20 Black-owned banks that qualify as Minority Depository Institutions, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation }.