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Also naming Lombard Street between 6th and 7th Streets as "Bishop Richard Allen Way" to honor the life and legacy of Bishop Richard Allen, founder of (Mother) Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church denomination.
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WHEREAS, Richard Allen was born on February 14, 1760, as a slave. His family was owned by Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and owner of the Cliveden Estate, Benjamin Chew. In 1767, "Negro Richard" Chew sold him to Stokley Sturgis in Delaware; and
WHEREAS, Richard and his brother were left on the farm to be raised by Stokley Sturgis to never be reunited with his family. Richard attended a Methodist Society Camp Meeting where he was converted and felt a yearning to devote to life to God after hearing the fire and brimstone preaching of abolitionist Methodist preacher, Freeborn Garretson; and
WHEREAS, Richard purchased his freedom from Stokley Sturgis for $2,000 continental dollars and received his manumission papers and took the name of Richard Allen; and
WHEREAS, Richard became a Methodist Exhorter, preaching the 5:30am service at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. His sermons attracted a sizeable black congregation necessitating church expansion; and
WHEREAS, On the third Sunday in November 1787, Richard Allen recalls in his autobiography "The Life and Gospel Labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen (1833) the incident noted as "The Great Walkout" that led to the founding and establishing of (Mother) Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church:
"We had not been long seated in our new seats, before we met with great opposition... A trustee of the Methodist church came and took him [Absalom Jones] by the hand and said, 'You must get up, and you must not kneel here.' Mr. Jones said, 'Wait until the prayer is over.' He said, 'No, you must get up now, or I will call for aid and force you away.' Mr. Jones said, 'Wait until the prayer is over, and I will get up...
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