{{Short description|American journalist (1807–1886)}} {{Infobox person | image = Charles B. Ray.png | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1807|12|25}} | birth_place = Falmouth, Massachusetts, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1886|08|15|1807|12|25}} | death_place = New York City, US |alma_mater = Wesleyan University | occupation = Abolitionist, newspaper editor and owner | spouse = {{ubl|{{Marriage|Henrietta Green Regulus|1834|1836|end=d}}|{{Marriage|Charlotte Augusta Burroughs|1840}}}} | children = 7, including Charlotte and Cordelia }}
'''Charles Bennett Ray''' (December 25, 1807 – August 15, 1886) was a prominent African-American minister and abolitionist who owned and edited the weekly newspaper ''The Colored American''. Born in Massachusetts, he spent most of his career and life in New York City.
==Early life and education== Born a free man in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Ray was the son of mail carrier Joseph Aspinwall Ray and his wife Annis Harrington.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} He attended Wesleyan Seminary in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, studying theology. In 1832 he enrolled as the first black student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, although his enrollment was revoked less than two months later. White students protested his admission.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.admiss.wesleyan.edu/diversity/beginnings.html |title=THE ROUTE TO DIVERSITY |access-date= December 31, 2008 |last=Wesleyan University - Beginnings: Charles B. Ray to Victor L. Butterfield |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720112909/http://www.admiss.wesleyan.edu/diversity/beginnings.html |archive-date=July 20, 2011 }}</ref>
==Move to New York and ministry== Ray moved to New York City in 1832 and opened a boot and shoe store.<ref name="Work 1919">{{cite journal |jstor=2713446 |title=The Life of Charles B. Ray|last=Work |first=M. N. |year=1919 |publisher=Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, Inc. |pages=361–371 |volume=4 |issue=4 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |doi=10.2307/2713446|doi-access=free }}</ref> He became a Methodist minister and later a Congregational minister.
Ray served as pastor of two predominantly white churches in New York City, Crosby Congregational Church and Bethesda Congregational Church.<ref name="Ray, Charles B. (1807-1886)">{{cite web |url=http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/ray-charles-b-1807-1886 |title=Ray, Charles B. (1807–1886) |access-date=December 30, 2008 |last=Larsen |first=Julia Henning |date=30 June 2008 |publisher=BlackPast.org}}</ref> Ray was a strong supporter of the temperance movement, and was a member of the American Missionary Association, the African Society for Mutual Relief, and co-founded the Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children.<ref name="Ray, Charles B. (1807-1886)" />
==Abolitionism== In the early 1830s Ray became involved in the abolitionist movement, and became a prominent promoter of the Underground Railroad. He was also co-founder and director of the New York Vigilance Committee and a member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, assisting refugee slaves.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95266543 |title=Henry Highland Garnet and the Weims Family... |access-date=December 31, 2008 |year=1985 |work=The Black Abolitionist Papers. Volume: 1}}</ref><ref name="The Life of Charles B. Ray">{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5POVMvsdp3MC&q=%22Charles+B.+Ray%22&pg=PA361 |title=The Life of Charles B. Ray |publisher=Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc. |access-date=December 31, 2008 |year=1919 |journal=The Journal of Negro History}}</ref> Ray was also active in the Society of the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children.<ref name="Ray bio">{{cite book|last=Ray|first=H. Cordelia and Florence|title=Sketch of the Life of Rev. Charles B. Ray.|year=1887|publisher=Press of J. J. Little|location=New York}}</ref>
==''The Colored American''== In 1838 Ray and Phillip Alexander Bell became co-owners of ''The Colored American'', the fourth weekly periodical published by African Americans. In 1839 Ray became the sole owner and editor.<ref name="The Life of Charles B. Ray" /> ''The Colored American'' promoted "the moral, social and political elevation of the free colored people; and the peaceful emancipation of the slaves."<ref name="Ray, Charles B. (1807-1886)" /> Ray traveled throughout the North giving speeches condemning prejudice against African Americans. In 1840 he became a supporter of the newly founded Liberty Party, the only publicly pro-Abolitionist political party.<ref name="Work 1919" /><ref name="Ray, Charles B. (1807-1886)" />
==Family== Ray married twice: first in 1834 to Henrietta Green Regulus, who died two years later in childbirth. He married again in 1840, to Charlotte Augusta Burroughs. They had seven children together, including Charlotte E. Ray, who became the first female African-American attorney; Florence Ray, who also became an attorney; and Cordelia Ray, who became a poet and known for her 80-line ode, "Lincoln".{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
Charles B. Ray died in New York City and is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.<ref name="Ray, Charles B. (1807-1886)" />
== Notes == {{reflist}}
==References== *{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XCfZ3sBIXvQC&q=%22Charles+B.+Ray%22&pg=PA218 |title=Black Churches in New York City, 1840 |access-date=December 12, 2008 |last=Ray |first=Charles B. |year=1840 |publisher=Colored American |isbn=978-0-8223-2449-2}}
== External links == * {{Commons-inline}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Charles Bennett}} Category:1807 births Category:1886 deaths Category:19th-century American journalists Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Category:Academics from Massachusetts Category:African-American abolitionists Category:American abolitionists Category:19th-century African-American academics Category:19th-century American academics Category:African-American Christian clergy Category:19th-century African-American clergy Category:African-American publishers (people) Category:American Congregationalist ministers Category:Temperance activists from New York (state) Category:Congregationalist abolitionists Category:Colored Conventions people Category:Underground Railroad people Category:Wesleyan University alumni Category:African-American temperance activists Category:19th-century American Christian clergy Category:19th-century American male journalists