COAN, JOSEPHUS ROOSEVELT, 1902-2004.
Josephus Roosevelt Coan papers, 1886-2000

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Separated Material

In Emory's holdings are books formerly owned by Josephus Coan. These materials may be located in the Emory University online catalog by searching for "Coan, Josephus, former owner," or "Josephus Coan Library."

Source

Purchase, 2002

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Josephus Roosevelt Coan papers, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Biographical Note

Josephus Roosevelt Coan (1902-2004), African American clergyman, missionary, and educator. He served the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) as a teacher, pastor, missionary, and acting Bishop in South Africa and then pursued a lengthy career as a pastor and a scholar and teacher of Christian education, based mainly in Atlanta, Georgia. Born November 26, 1902, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Coan earned a B.A. from Howard University (1930), a B.D. (1933) and an M.A. in Christian Education from Yale University (1934), and a Ph.D. from Hartford Seminary Foundation (1961).

From 1934 to 1938, Coan taught at Morris Brown College and Turner Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Coan travelled to the British colony of South Africa in 1938 to help establish the R.R. Wright School of Religion on the campus of Wilberforce Institute in Evaton, Transvaal Province. In 1940 he was selected to become the first Black superintendent of Wilberforce Institute. From 1940-1948, he was also the acting African Methodist Episcopal bishop over an area that included the areas covered by the modern nations of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Malawi.

After returning to the United States and settling in Georgia, Coan pursued a career as a teacher, scholar and pastor. He worked for Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta until his retirement in 1976.

Biographical source: Mercedes Campbell Brown, The Unconquered Mountain: Dr. Josephus Coan’s life and Work in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Africa, 1938-1948. Nashville: A.M.E. Publishing House, 1995.

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains the papers of Josephus Coan from 1896-2002. The papers include correspondence, writings by Coan and others, diaries and appointment books, records relating to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church (Atlanta, Georgia), teaching files, subject files, photographs, personal papers, printed material, and audiovisual material.

The collection documents Coan's work as a missionary in South Africa, as a pastor at St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church, and as an educator at Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Arrangement Note

Organized into eleven series: (1) Correspondence, (2) Writings, (3) Diaries/Appointment Books, (4) African Methodist Episcopal Church records, (5) St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church (Atlanta, Georgia) records, (6) Teaching files, (7) Subject files, (8) Photographs, (9) Personal papers, (10) Printed material, and (11) Audiovisual materials.