Background
Emanuel King Love was born on July 27, 1850 in slavery near Marion, Alabama, United States. He was the son of Cumby Jarrett Love and Maria Antoinette Love, both of African blood.
Emanuel King Love was born on July 27, 1850 in slavery near Marion, Alabama, United States. He was the son of Cumby Jarrett Love and Maria Antoinette Love, both of African blood.
Love's life was one of hard work on a farm, but he was ambitious to learn and studied nights by torch light. Obtaining admission to Lincoln University in Marion in 1871, he remained only part of the year, but mastered most of the restricted curriculum. The following year he entered Augusta Institute, Augusta, Georgia, where he led all his classes and graduated in 1877. During this period he was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Augusta, December 12, 1875. Selma University, Selma, Alabama, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1888.
For a time Love had charge of his church at Marion and did some teaching at Augusta Institute and in public schools of Georgia. From 1877 to 1879 he was a missionary for the state of Georgia under joint appointment of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and the Georgia Mission Board, both organizations of white Baptists.
In 1879 he became pastor of the First African Baptist Church at Thomasville, Georgia, which throve under his leadership. For about four years, 1881-1885, he was supervisor of Sunday-school mission work among the African-Americans of Georgia, under an appointment of the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia. He serves as a pastor in the Baptist Church of Savannah from October 1, 1885, until his death. This was probably the largest Baptist church in the world and the oldest African-American Baptist church in the United States. In 1888 he published History of the First African Baptist Church, from Its Organization, January 20th, 1788, to July 16t, 1888.
He was one of the organizers of the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, of which he was president in 1889-1891 and 1893, while at the time of his death he was president of the Georgia Negro Baptist Convention and editor of its organ, The Baptist Truth, which he had founded. Love was especially interested in securing for the African-Americans an education which would provide adequate leaders in church, state, and industry. When the Georgia State Industrial College was established, he was largely responsible for its location in Savannah and formulated the plan for raising the necessary money.
Love played the key role in founding separate African-American Baptist national organizations and advocating for the civil rights of African-Americans. His most distinctive work and greatest influence came in his pastorate of the First African Baptist Church of Savannah. He not only increased its membership but broadened the scope of its work. He was also among the prime movers in the founding of Central City College, which opened in 1899.
Love was a man of native eloquence, with an ability to secure cooperation from whites as well as from members of his own race.
On October 30, 1879, Emanuel Love married Josephine Carter Leeks.
