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“Elite News Celebrates BLACK HISTORY Every Day” ELITE NEWS February 16, 2018
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The Official Voice of the Church and Community “The Spoken Word Is Like The Air’ But The Printed Word Is Always There”
GRIGGS, ALLEN R. (ca. 1850–1922). Allen R. Griggs, Baptist minister, was born a slave, the son of Elbert and Brailla Griggs of Hancock County, Georgia, about 1850. He was brought to Texas at age nine. Griggs joined the Baptist Church in 1869 and was ordained as a missionary five years later. In 1870 he married, and he and his wife had eight children. Their son, Sutton Elbert Griggs, became a noted minister and novelist. In the early 1870s Griggs received his first pastorate at the New Hope Baptist Church in Dallas, RECOGNIZED AS THE FIRST BLACK CHURCH IN DALLAS. He held the position for nearly ten years. He later served as pastor at Macedonia which became Good Street Baptist Church and also founded Griggs Chapel in Dallas. Shortly after the Civil War, he and the church Trustees put their money together and bought a cemetery and a park to celebrate the 19th of June, now called Juneteenth. The City of Dallas Bought the Park in 1915 and the Negro Council of Women asked the City to name it After Griggs. In 2016, The City Dedicated the Park as a Dog Park for Uptown. Aside from his church duties, Griggs devoted himself to the education of black Texans. He helped raise funds to establish Bishop College and served that institution as a trustee. He was cofounder of North Texas Baptist College in Denison and several other institutions. He has also been credited with establishing the first black high school in Texas and Texas's first black newspaper. In 1891 Griggs was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by the State University of Kentucky. In 1873 he was made a member of the World's Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, and in 1905 he was selected as a delegate from Texas to the Pan-Baptists Congress meeting in London, England. Further religious activities include years spent as corresponding secretary of the National Baptist Educational Board and chief organizer and president of the Texas Baptist State Sunday-School Convention, and chief organizer of the Texas Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and the Texas Negro Biographical and Historical Society. For twenty years he served as moderator of the Northwestern Baptist Association and was moderator of the State Missionary and Superintendent of Missions for Texas for twenty-eight years. Griggs also served as editor for several newspapers including, the Baptist Journal, Baptist Preacher, Centennial Dollar Reporter, Dallas Christian Leaflet, National Baptist Bulletin, and the Western Star, which he served as an associate editor. At the time of his death he was dean of North Texas Baptist College. Griggs died on May 7, 1922, in Denison. He was buried in Dallas.
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Telling it Like it is! Volume 69 Issue 8
COVER STORY PAGE 3
AR Griggs Heritage Lecture Series 1:00 pm Saturday February 17, 2018 Dallas Public Library 1500 Young St. Dallas Texas
Elizabeth Walley League of Women Voters, Page 2
See Page 4
Remember Early Negro League Baseball see page 15 Voting Starts Tuesday February Bob May author, speaker, and 20-March 2, 2018 baseball historian. A popular speaker for civic groups, churchPrimary es and educational institutions, Election Day Bob discusses his startling findTuesday March 6, ings and honors Negro League legends. 2018
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