James Solomon Russell

James Solomon Russell (December 20, 1857- March 28, 1935), born enslaved, in Mecklenberg County Virginia, shortly before the American Civil War, became an Episcopal priest and educator. Russell founded Saint Paul Normal and Industrial School, which later became Saint Paul's College, and declined two elections to become bishop to continue directing that (now-closed) historically black college.

James Russell was born to Araminta, an enslaved woman on the Hendrick plantation in Mecklenburg County. His enslaved father, Solomon Russell, worked on the Russell plantation in Warren County, North Carolina. After the Union victory in the American Civil War, he rejoined the family and began sharecropping in Palmer Springs, Virginia. James began attending a local school whose schoolmaster allowed tuition to be paid in labor and farm products, and the schoolmaster and superintendent encouraged him to continue his education.

He thus was admitted to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton University in 1874. Financial constraints required that he support himself, as well as interrupt his own education several times. After a year, he began teaching near home, and also worked when the college was not in session. As part of his elementary school curriculum, Russell required students to recite the Apostles Creed daily. This came to the attention of a local Episcopalian matron, who gave him a Book of Common Prayer, and Russell decided to become a member of that denomination.

Russell's mother had long dreamed of her son becoming a priest and encouraged his education and ministerial aspirations. Mrs. Pattie Buford of Lawrenceville, Virginia brought Russell's desire to become a priest to the attention of Bishop Francis McNeece Whittle, who sent a local priest to Hampton to investigate and secured Russell's admission to the newly formed Bishop Payne Divinity School(originally an offshoot of the Virginia Theological Seminary, with which it merged in 1953)in Petersburg, Virginia in 1878.

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