Shelton Hale Bishop

Background

Shelton Hale Bishop was born in 1889 in New York City. His parents were Estelle and Hutchens Chew Bishop, who was rector of St. Philip's Church from 1886 to 1933. When Shelton Bishop was seven years old he entered the service of St. Philip's as an acolyte.

Education

Shelton Bishop attended Columbia University in New York and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1911. He also graduated from General Theological Seminary with a Bachelor of Divinity and was ordained in 1914.

Career

Shelton Hale Bishop was a pastor of Episcopal churches in Chicago, Illinois in 1915.

Then Bishop became a rector of Church of the Holy Cross Episcopal, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he worked from 1916 to 1923.

Shelton Hale Bishop's long church career culminated during the years he served as a priest and assistant from 1923-1933, and later as a rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Harlem from 1933-1957. For ten years beginning in 1933, he was director of young people's work.

In the 1940's Shelton Hale Bishop founded the Lafargue Clinic, Harlem's first psychiatric clinic operated free of charge from St. Philip's Church. Bishop offered the use of two rooms in the basement of the church parish house. Early on he supported the admission of women to membership in the vestry. The membership of the church reached 3,800 by the mid-1950s.

Beginning from 1946 Shelton also was a vicar at St. John's Episcopal Church, Hawaii.

Bishop retired as rector of St. Philip's Church in 1957 and relocated to Hawaii where he became involved in local church activities. Thus, Shelton had been serving in the Maui Island church as vicar since 1957.

Bishop was a founding member of the Wiltwyck School, the first residential institution to serve emotionally disturbed African American children who came to the attention of the courts.

Shelton Bishop is also the author of The Romance of the Negro (1910), The Wonder of Prayer (1959) as well as a contributor to periodicals, including Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Achievements

• Shelton Hale Bishop was the creator of Lafargue Clinic, a credit union, a community center, Camp Great Neck in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania.
  
  Bishop also was a founding member of the Wiltwyck School, the first residential institution to serve emotionally disturbed African American children who came to the attention of the courts.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Wonder of Prayer 1959

Politics

Shelton Bishop was active in Progressive politics and social movements in the 1920s and 1930s, including working with Socialist Party on the presidential campaigns of Norman Thomas.

Views

Bishop's accomplishments with St. Philip's included introducing increased church activity directed against crime, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

He strongly supported the Katie Ferguson Home, an institution in Harlem for unwed mothers, and was involved in other social welfare activities.

He also supported the admission of women to membership in the vestry.

Shelton Bishop was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Bishop was a leader in first drawing attention to the de facto segregation of New York City public schools, as well as being a leading figure during the 1940s in articulating demands that the United States Armed Forces be desegregated.

Shelton Hale Bishop was known for his commitment to social justice and violence-prevention programs.

Membership

• 

  Shelton Bishop was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , United States

• 

  Shelton Bishop participated in founding the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

  Fellowship of Reconciliation , United States

• 

  Bishop was an ecumenical precursor to Congress of Racial Equality.

  Congress of Racial Equality , United States

Connections

Shelton Hale Bishop was married.

Father:

Hutchens Chew Bishop

Mother:

Estelle (Gilliam) Bishop

Daughter:

Elizabeth Bishop Davis Trussell

grandmother:

Elizabeth Chew Bishop

Grandfather:

William Henry Bishop III

colleague:

M. Moran Weston

After Bishop's retirement, M. Moran Weston took his post as rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church.

сolleague:

Fredrick Wertham

Co-founder of Lafargue Clinic together with Shelton Bishop.