African American preacher and racial reformer.
Cassius began preaching in Sigourney, Iowa, in 1880. Eleven years later Cassius moved to Oklahoma Territory to preach, believing it was a place where blacks and native Americans could be free of racial prejudice and discrimination because of the low white population. In the spring of 1892 he began preaching for the first black congregation in Oklahoma Territory in Springvale Township, and in 1900 he moved to Tohee where he operated the Tohee Industrial School. In 1902 Cassius became the first African American preacher from the Stone-Campbell Movement to preach in the Los Angeles area. Later, in 1924, he and his son A. L. Cassius would establish the first black Church of Christ in southern California.
Cassius began annual meetings for black Christians in Oklahoma in 1899, and he established the Missionary Executive Board of the Colored Disciples in Oklahoma in 1909, serving as the body’s first president. He became disillusioned with the organization, however, and moved in 1915 to Austin, Texas, to preach for a time. In addition to his later work in California, in 1927 Cassius established a church in Denver, Colorado, beginning with twenty-six Christians.
Cassius published frequent reports and articles in the Christian Leader and the Gospel Advocate. J. E. Choate recorded that Cassius was known for “chastising white brethren for their lack of interest in the Negro.” He argued for racial separation because of the white Christians’ lack of interest in and antagonism toward blacks. In 1920 he published Third Birth of a Nation, a strong attack against American racism.
See also African Americans in the Movement
BIBLIOGRAPHY Calvin H. Bowers, Realizing the California Dream: The Story of the Black Churches of Christ in Los Angeles (2001) • S. R. Cassius, The Third Birth of a Nation (1920; rev. ed. 1925) • J. E. Choate, Roll Jordan Roll: A Biography of Marshall Keeble (1968).
ERVIN C. JACKSON
Foster, Douglas A.. The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (pp. 581-582). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
This entry, written by Ervin C. Jackson, was originally published in The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Edited by Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, and D. Newell Williams; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), pages 166-167. Republished with permission.