June 13, 1845
Charles Octavius Boothe, a native of Mobile County, was born as the legal property of planter Nathan Howard Sr. Boothe became an influential African-American Baptist preacher, educator and author who worked with white leaders and philanthropists to assist African-Americans in post-Civil War Alabama. He helped found Selma University, the Dexter Avenue-King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, and the Colored Baptist Missionary Convention for the State of Alabama, the first statewide African-American Baptist denominational organization. In 1901, he joined Booker T. Washington in public opposition to calls to rewrite Alabama’s constitution.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.