Did You Know: A White Pastor Tried To Pass As Black In 1903

Did You Know: A White Pastor Tried To Pass As Black In 1903

Do y'all remember Rachel Dolezal? You know, the white woman that pretended to be black. Dolezal's self-identification as black became the subject of controversy in June 2015, after Dolezal's parents stated that their daughter had been trying to "disguise herself" as African-American. Although it’s a good story, we aren't here to talk about Dolezal. Before Rachel Dolezal there was Rev. L.M. Fenwick.

Here it is...

Fenwick was an educated man who worked as a schoolteacher and doctor in Indiana in the late 1800s. According to census records, Fenwick is identified as a white man, but in the late 1800s, a woman named Nettie took Fenwick to court, claiming he was the father of her child. Fenwick married Nettie, who later shows up in records as black or mulatto. Fenwick began attending AME churches and, according to the Journal Sentinel, served as the pastor of St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal from 1902 to 1904.

“He takes up the pulpit, and either he tells them he’s black or doesn’t tell them anything and they assume he’s black, because he’s married to a black woman and preaching in a black church.” The trouble began after Fenwick accused a young black man of burglarizing his church. He took that man to court and took the witness stand during the trial, where an attorney for the defense asked the pastor point blank, “Are you a white man?”“I am a gentleman,” Fenwick said, according to a Chicago Tribune article that was discovered, which was printed in 1903.

Under pressure from the judge, Fenwick later admitted, “I am a white man”  “I felt it my duty to work among the colored people. Whose business is it, I should like to know? I gave up a lucrative practice as a physician to go into the work,” he told the Chicago Tribune at the time.

The church eventually kicked Fenwick out. Like Dolezal, Fenwick felt most comfortable living among blacks and wanted the “black experience”

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