John Wesley Edward Bowen Sr. (December 3, 1855 – July 20, 1933) was born into American slavery and became a Methodist clergyman, denominational official, college and university educator.

[2] Edward Bowen, a carpenter, was originally from Maryland and later lived in Washington, D.C., but moved to New Orleans, where he was enslaved and held in bondage until he purchased his own freedom.

Rose Simon Bowen was the granddaughter of an African princess of the Jolloffer tribe on the west coast of Africa.

He also did special advanced work in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, and German, and in metaphysics and psychology.

Bowen also served as pastor of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. and as a professor of Hebrew at Howard University.

In October, 1895, Bowen delivered "An Appeal to the King" on "Negro Day" at the Atlanta Cotton States' Exposition.

As a member of the Board of Control of the Methodist Episcopal Church's Epworth League, he organized a national conference in Atlanta on the Christian education of African-American youth.

In January 1904, Bowen and Jesse Max Barber launched The Voice of the Negro, a Literary journal addressed to a national audience of African Americans.

In September, however, his inaugural year was shadowed by a severe race riot in which white rioters brutally attacked black people in Atlanta.

Barber fled the city, taking The Voice of the Negro with him to Chicago, where he continued its publication for a year without Bowen's assistance.

Bowen retired as head of the church history department of Gammon in 1926 but continued to teach until 1932, when he became an emeritus professor.

Who has not heard of John Wesley Edward Bowen, who was born in New Orleans in 1855, educated there and at Boston University and has worked at Morgan, Howard and Gammon?