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Today marks a milestone worth remembering in American Presbyterian history: 170 years ago on December 19, 1849, James W.C. Pennington, the fugitive slave blacksmith who became a Presbyterian minister, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Heidelberg, Germany — thereby becoming the first African-American to receive this honor from a European university.
The story of this honorary degree is told by Herman E. Thomas in James W.C. Pennington: African American Churchman and Abolitionist (Studies in African American History and Culture and by Christopher L. Webber in American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists (2011). As Webber notes, the faculty told Pennington on that momentous occasion that “You are the first African who has received this dignity from a European university, and it is the University of Heidelberg that thus pronounces the universal brotherhood of humanity.”
Self-taught and able in Greek, Latin and German; author of the scholarly A Text Book of the Origin and History of the Colored People (1841) (and later, the fascinating autobiography, The Fugitive Blacksmith; or, Events in the History of James W.C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States (1850); and social activist as well as minister of the gospel; Pennington was a worthy selection by the faculty for this honor, although Pennington, with humility and grace, stated that he did not deserve this award but accepted it as a tribute to his race. What is particularly remarkable is that his academic attainments came through the extra effort required by being denied enrollment at Yale Divinity School, and though he was permitted to attend and audit classes, he was barred from speaking in class or borrowing library books. The hurdles he overcame both before and after he escaped from slavery in order to exercise his liberty and pursue his dreams are one thing; the freedom he found in Christ, as all Christians can testify, is even more profound.
“In 2011, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology of Heidelberg University established the James W.C. Pennington Award.”
Source: University of Heidelberg (https://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/forschung/pennington_en.html)
We pause today to remember and to reflect upon this milestone achievement by James W.C. Pennington and what it represents in the history of African-Americans, Presbyterians and the world.
