Emanuel K. Love (July 27, 1850 – April 24, 1900) was a minister and leader in the Baptist church from Savannah, Georgia. He was pastor of one of the largest churches in the country and was a prominent activist for black civil rights and anti-lynching laws. He played an important role in establishing separate black Baptist national organizations and advocating for black leadership of Baptist institutions, especially schools.
Early life
Love was born a slave on July 27, 1850 near Marion, Alabama in Perry County. He was largely uneducated and worked on a farm until 1870 when he entered Lincoln University in Marion where he studied until 1872. He returned to farm work that year and November 17, 1872 he enrolled in the Augusta Institute (later renamed Morehouse College) in Augusta, Georgia under Reverend Joseph T. Robert. On December 12, 1875 he was ordained in the Baptist church. He graduated in 1877 and was appointed missionary for the state of Georgia by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York and the Georgia Mission Society. On July 1, 1879 he resigned to take charge of the First Baptist Church in Thomasville, Georgia. He resigned this post and returned to the position of missionary for the State on October 1, 1881, this time under the auspices of the American Baptist Publication Society. On October 1, 1885 he resigned to accept another charge, pastor to the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia. This church was one of the largest churches in the world at that time. About that time, he was appointed editor of the Centennial Record and the Georgia Sentinel a Baptist journal and a Baptist Newspaper.
Black separatism in Baptist leadership
In the 1880s American Baptist leadership was dominated by white, segregationist leaders. Love saw this as unjust, and pushed for more publication of racial issues by the American Baptist Publication Society, and proposed a separate black Baptist publication group. In the late 1880s, Love and William J. White were leaders in the separatist factions and called for greater representation of black leaders in Baptist organizations, as well as for black presidents at the Atlanta Baptist College and Spelman College and more representation in the boards of trustees of the schools. In 1887, Love, White, and James C. Bryan were noted for calling for black leadership at the Atlanta Baptist Seminary.
Love's outspokenness led to his promotion to official leadership within the black Baptist church. In 1888, Love was elected president of the colored Baptist Foreign Mission convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Rev. M. W. Gilbert of Nashville was elected vice president, J. J. Spellman of Jackson, Mississippi secretary and J. E. Farrier of Richmond, Virginia treasurer. Also in 1888, Love was among the leaders of a group of 350 leading black Georgians met to push for education legislation and to opposed discrimination, particularly in chain gangs, Jim Crow laws on public transportation, lynch law, disenfranchisement, and jury selection. That year, he published a history of black Baptist churches in America.
Baxley affair
In Thomasville and Savannah in the late 1870s and the 1880s, Love was lauded by the white Baptist community for his work. This support did not extend to the broader white community, nor did it continue in the late 1880s. In 1889, he was among a delegation to travel from Georgia to attend the annual meeting of the black Baptist Foreign Mission Convention in Indianapolis. The train on the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad had only a first-class car and a smoking car. The delegates opposed smoking and drinking and desired to sit in a first-class car. They had been promised that a segregated first-class car would be provided, but it was not, and the black men found seats for themselves in the white first-class car. White passengers and rail conductors were unhappy and sent a telegram down the line informing people about the infraction. A black porter notified Love about the spread of the news, and once the train stopped at the next stop in Baxley, Georgia, a mob boarded the train and demanded the delegation leave. When they refused, they were attacked and beaten and Love believed that they would have been killed without the interference of the conductor. Five of the delegates including Love and Rev. C. K. Spratling pushed on and went to Indianapolis. They also published an article describing the event which was republished widely.