Rev. Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray was an early and committed civil rights activist and the first African American woman priest ordained in the Episcopal Church.

Born in Baltimore in 1910, Murray was raised in Durham, North Carolina, and graduated from Hunter College in 1933. After seeking admission to graduate school at the University of North Carolina in 1938, she was denied entry due to her race. She went on to graduate from Howard University Law School in 1944. While a student at Howard, she participated in sit-in demonstrations that challenged racial segregation in drugstores and cafeterias in Washington, DC. Denied admission to Harvard University for an advanced law degree because of her gender, Murray received her Masters of Law from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1945.

In 1948 the Women’s Division of Christian Service of the Methodist Church hired Murray to compile information about segregation laws in the South. Her research led to a 1951 book, States’ Laws on Race and Color, which became a foundational document for Thurgood Marshall in his work on the decisive Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Committed to dismantling barriers of race, Murray saw the civil rights and women’s movements as intertwined and believed that black women had a vested interest in the women’s movement. In recent years, scholars have brought to light Murray’s complex sexual and gender identity, including her attempts to access testosterone therapy as early as the 1930s. While she did not use the term “Transgender” she clearly is an early pioneer for the transgender community.

In later life, she discerned a call to ordained ministry and began studies at General Theological Seminary in 1973. She was ordained as a deacon in June 1976, and, on January 8, 1977, she was ordained as a priest at Washington National Cathedral. Murray served at Church of the Atonement in Washington, D.C., from 1979 to 1981 and at Holy Nativity Church in Baltimore until her death in 1985.

The Rev. Kim Jackson, Georgia State Senator

The Rev. Kim Jackson is not your average State Senator-elect in the South. She’s a Black, lesbian Episcopal priest who lives on a hobby farm with her wife in Stone Mountain. And she’s ready to bring her theological, justice-oriented perspective to the State Senate, where she will represent District 41 after defeating her Republican opponent on Nov. 3, 2020.

A resident of Georgia for 10 years, she was raised in the rural South by her parents who served their communities in their roles of a social worker and community nurse, both helping disadvantaged people. Before attending Emory’s Candler School of Theology, Jackson worked as a volunteer EMT. During her time at the Candler School, she advocated for criminal justice reform in Georgia. During her ten years of ministry as an Episcopal priest, she served as a college chaplain, a nationally renowned consultant and preacher, a parish priest, and a social justice advocate. During her campaign, she was endorsed by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Georgia Equality, and Run for Something, and endorsed by people such as Stacey Abrams, DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston, and Chief Justice Norman Fletcher.

Jackson is being heralded as Georgia’s first openly gay State Senator. But she is quick to point out that she shares a district with state Rep. Karla Drenner, who was the first openly gay member of the Georgia General Assembly. 

The Rt. Rev. Deon Kevin Johnson

Deon Kevin Johnson was born and raised in a small village on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

After receiving Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and History and an Associates degree in Biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH (2000), he went on to earn a Master of Divinity degree from The General Theological Seminary in New York, NY (2003).

Deon served as Associate Rector at Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights, OH (2003-2006), and most recently as Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brighton, MI (2006-2020).

The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri elected the Rev. Deon Kevin Johnson as its 11th diocesan bishop on Nov. 23, 2019. Bishop Johnson is the first gay black bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Johnson and his husband Jhovanny Osorio are the proud parents of two children, Lilohalani and Ja’Lon. He enjoys cooking, photography, hiking and being an armchair movie critic.

Bishop Johnson was ordained as the 11th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri on June 13, 2020, at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis. His ordination was originally scheduled for April 25, 2020, but the coronavirus forced a postponement of the event.