Background
He was born on December 8, 1868 near Fayetteville, Tennessee, United States, and grew up on a farm with his parents, Richard and Hannah (Wetherley) Proctor, who had formerly been slaves.
He was born on December 8, 1868 near Fayetteville, Tennessee, United States, and grew up on a farm with his parents, Richard and Hannah (Wetherley) Proctor, who had formerly been slaves.
After studying in the public schools he worked his way for seven years through the preparatory and college courses at Fisk University in Nashville, winning the degree of A. B. in 1891. He then entered the Yale Divinity School, from which he was graduated in 1894.
On July 1, 1894, he was ordained to the Christian ministry at Atlanta, Georgia, and at once began work as pastor of the First Congregational Church of that city. He soon won the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, white as well as black. His first institutional church for negroes was visited by many social workers and notables, among them President Theodore Roosevelt and President Taft.
From March 10 to August 1, 1919, he served under the War Work Council of the Young Men's Christian Association as special lecturer to negro soldiers in France. It was estimated that he spoke to more than 275, 000. In 1920 he was called to the pastorate of the Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. When he came, there were one hundred and sixty members; when he died, there were more than a thousand. Furthermore, he had succeeded in purchasing church property in the very heart of the city, and from that center he once more interested himself in a multitude of good causes.
When the Fisk University was in need, he launched a campaign among negroes which brought in $100, 000, much of it in dimes and nickels and even pennies.
As an author he wrote in a terse, readable style. He published Sermons in Melody (1916), and contributed various articles to some of the leading newspapers and magazines. In 1904-06 he served as assistant moderator of the National Council of Congregational Churches, and in 1926 the New York City Congregational Church Association elected him as its moderator. He was vice-president of the American Missionary Association, 1906-09, of the Negro Urban League of Brooklyn, and of the Brooklyn Lincoln Settlement; from 1906 to 1908 he was president of the National Convention of Congregational Workers Among the Colored People, and from 1908 to 1933 its corresponding secretary.
His death was due to septicemia, and he was buried in South View Cemetery, Atlanta.
Henry Hugh Proctor became one of the most prominent and effective ministers of the negro race, he served for twenty-five years in the First Congregational Church at Atlanta. He built the first institutional church for negroes in the S. He also was the first to propose a definite program for aid to Fisk University by the alumni, so that he has been called "the father of organized alumni work at Fisk. " He was a pioneer in all inter-racial movements. His challenging appeal at a meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions led to the establishment of the de Galanquo Angola Mission, which has proved to be one of the notable stations in Portuguese West Africa. Of his publications, his autobiography, Between Black and White (1925), is best known.
Born with oratorical gifts, he had become one of the noted speakers in America; and this ability coupled with a fine physique, a magnetic personality, and great vigor and courage made him a power for good.
He married Adeline Davis on August 16, 1893, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and had two sons and three daughters.
