Bishop Frederick Douglass Jordan Book Collection

Bishop Fredrick Douglass Jordan (1901 August 8-1979 December 16) was a Native Atlantan. His father, D.J. Jordan was Professor and later served as Vice-President of Morris Brown College. His maternal grandfather Rev. Lawrence (Larry) Thomas was among a group of ministers who made an initial contribution for the purchase of land for the original site of Morris Brown College. The orginal Jordan-Thomas Library on the campus was named for both of these men.

Bishop Fredrick Douglass Jordan attended North Carolina A & T College and Howard University, where he met his wife, Artishia (Wilkerson) Jordan. Bishop Jordan was an active student and was a member of both Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and NAACP. He left Howard University in 1921 to attend Northwestern University, where he completed his B.A, degree in English with a double minor in economics and Greek in 1924. In 1923, Jordan became pastor of the St. Paul AME Church in Chicago Illinois. Jordan later completed his theological degree from Garrett Biblical Institute in March 1925. In 1952, Jordan was elected to the Episcopacy and ordained as the 72nd Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church at the Chicago General Conference.

Bishop Jordan served seven districts, including several in African territories during his tenure. Due to his outstanding humanitarian services and concern for youth, an elementary school in Roysville, Liberia was named in his honor.

In the early 1960's, Jordan served as president of Campbell College an AME institution that later merged with Jackson State College. Bishop Jordan served as a member of the General Board of the National Councils of the World Methodist Council, was the first black chairman of the Consultation on Church Union(COCU), and was elected the first vice president of the National Councils of Churches in 1969.

Bishop Jordan contributed frequently to Morris Brown College and in 1976, he became one of the college's largest individual donors, with the donation of $250,000 to fund the Artishia and Frederick Jordan Education Trust, which later became the Artishia and Frederick Jordan Scholarship Fund. The Fund was founded to provide scholarships to students of Morris Brown College who demonstrated financial need and academic "promise." The Jordan Scholarship Fund transitioned to serving students of Howard University in 2011.

Upon the formation of the scholarship fund, Bishop Jordan contributed artifacts including AME memorabilia, furniture pieces and books donated in the memory of Mrs. Artishia Wilkerson Jordan to the Jordan-Thomas Library Collection. Among the AME artifacts donated to Morris Brown College was a money box belonging to the founder of the AME Church, Richard Allen. The money box is now housed in the Smithsonian Museum.

Named in his honor, the Frederick D. Jordan Hall housed classrooms and the Ruth Hall Hodges Art Gallery on the campus of Morris Brown College.

For more information on Bishop Jordan, Mrs. Artishia Wilkerson Jordan or the Artishia and Frederick Jordan Scholarship Fund, please visit www.jordanscholarship.org