Background
Richard Henry Boyd was born on March 15, 1843. He was the son of Indiana Dixon, a slave of B. A. Gray, a planter in Noxubee County, Mississippi.
https://www.amazon.com/National-Jubilee-Melodies-Various/dp/1446501140?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1446501140
https://www.amazon.com/Boyds-national-Baptist-pastors-parliamentary/dp/B00072OEIA?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00072OEIA
Richard Henry Boyd was born on March 15, 1843. He was the son of Indiana Dixon, a slave of B. A. Gray, a planter in Noxubee County, Mississippi.
Although inspired to preach, Boyd was handicapped, in that he had had no literary training. He had never attended a public school, and it was only after 1865 that he was even taught the alphabet. Having, however, a desire to learn, he secured the assistance of white people who taught him to read and to spell.
Named Dick Gray by his master, he went by this name until 1867 or 1868 when he changed it himself to R. H. Boyd. When he was six years old, the Grays moved to Washington County, Texas, where they lived on a large plantation until the outbreak of the Civil War. Boyd accompanied his master as a servant in one of the Confederate armies fighting around Chattanooga.
Upon the death of his master and three of his sons, the slave returned to take charge of the plantation. In the capacity of manager, he served efficiently, not only in the production of cotton but in selling it at points across the border in Mexico. Upon the breakup of this family a few years later, he became first a Texas cowboy and then a laborer at a sawmill in Montgomery County.
A turning point in his life came in 1870 or 1871 when he professed religion and entered the Baptist ministry. He was ordained in the latter part of the same year.
After he was ordained to the ministry, he spent two years in what is now known as Bishop College at Marshall, Texas, a school founded and operated by the Home Missionary Society of New York. Entering seriously upon his task as a minister, Boyd not only served an influential church himself but organized with six other churches the first negro Baptist Association in Texas about 1872.
He built churches at Waverly, Old Danville, Navasota, Crockett, Palestine, and San Antonio. He was named the secretary of the negro Baptist Convention of Texas and elected superintendent of missions in that state.
Serving in these positions, he conceived the idea of publishing literature for negro Baptist Sunday Schools. He brought out his first religious pamphlets for the years of 1894 and 1895. He later published several useful works, among which should be mentioned the Pastor's Guide, the Church Directory, and Jubilee and Plantation Songs.
An opportunity for the furtherance of his plans came in 1896, when, while attending the national Baptist convention at St. Louis, he was elected secretary of the home mission board to do mission work among the negroes of the United States. He soon gained sufficient impetus to organize, in January 1897, the National Baptist Publishing Board which issued the first series of negro Baptist literature ever published.
His task was a difficult one, for neither he nor his denomination had any money. He had courage, however, and soon won the support of influential friends among the whites who were seriously impressed with the importance of this work.
The publishing project rapidly developed into the source of supply of religious literature for the negro Baptists throughout the world. Unfortunately, however, in 1915, because of certain questions as to the management of its affairs, there came a split which resulted in two factions of the negro Baptists of the country, one adhering to the leadership of Boyd and the other to that of the president of the Baptist convention, Dr. E. C. Morris.
The latter faction has since then established another large publishing house known as the Sunday School Publishing Board.
Richard Henry Boyd is known as the founder and head of the National Baptist Publishing Board and a founder of the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. He was not only a prominent businessman but also an Author. As a businessman, he founded The Nashville Globe newspaper, the National Baptist Church Supply Company, the National Negro Doll Company and was one of the founders of One Cent Savings Bank in Nashville. The National Baptist Publishing Board was renamed the R. H. Boyd Publishing Corporation in his honor in 2000. The corporation and the R. H. Boyd Family Endowment Fund offer fellowships in his name for African-Americans engaged in graduate study. In April 2009, he was posthumously inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville in honor of his contributions to preserving the music of former slaves and their descendants.
In his religious affiliation Richard Henry Boyd was a Baptist, so in 1869 he became a Baptist Minister and organized the Negro Baptist Convention of Texas. He later founded the National Baptist Church Supply Company and was an initiator of the publishing project rapidly developed into the source of supply of religious literature for the African-American Baptists throughout the world.
Richard Boyd was a member of the first Baptist Association in Texas.
In 1869, Richard Henry Boyd was married to Hattie Moore.
1855 - 16 December 1928
Died on 19 June 1935.
Died on 5 April 1958.
Died on 11 April 1922.
16 April 1876 - 28 May 1959
1894 - 9 October 1979
