John William Hamilton - Denominational Service

Denominational Service

Beginning in 1892 Rev. Hamilton was elected Corresponding Secretary of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society, an agency of the M.E. Church created after the American Civil War to establish and maintain educational institutions in the southern U.S. for the benefit of freed slaves and other underprivileged youth. At the same time, being held in high esteem by his ministerial colleagues, Rev. Hamilton was elected a delegate to M.E. General Conferences, 1884-1900.

John Hamilton was an eloquent advocate of temperance and the rights of African Americans and women. Indeed, as a General Conference delegate in 1892 he proposed a change to the Constitution of the Methodist Episcopal Church that ultimately made it possible for women to serve as delegates to that same body.

Throughout his varied ministries, Rev. Hamilton also was an author and an editor.