Bishop Payne Divinity School

[1]: 29  The school's Emmanuel Chapel still stands, at the corner of South West and Willcox Streets.

[2] The College began in 1878 when James Solomon Russell, who would be the school's first graduate and left us a description of his experiences there,[1]: 34–35  was called to the ministry but was not allowed to study at the all-white Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in Alexandria.

"[3]: 500 From 1886 to 1889, the school was based in a house and lot in the 1100 block of South Washington Street.

[1]: 9 Bishop Payne was the only Divinity School in the Episcopal Church devoted exclusively to the training of "young Negro men" for the ministry; as of 1921, there were 91 alumni, who constituted about 60% of the Episcopal Black clergy in the U.S.

[1]: 30 Enrollment was negatively affected, to the point of threatening the Seminary's survival, by the decision of the church's Diocese of Virginia to deny a vote in the Diocesan Council to all newly ordained Negro clergymen.

The merger was negotiated by civil rights attorney Armistead Boothe.