Christopher Payne

{{Short description|American politician (1845–1925)}} {{about||the English cricketer|Christopher Payne (cricketer)|the photographer|Christopher Payne (photographer)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Christopher H. Payne | image = CHPayne.jpg | caption = | office = Member of the West Virginia House of Delegates | term_start = January, 1897 | term_end = January, 1901 | predecessor = | successor3 = | birth_date = {{birth date|1845|9|7}} | birth_place = Monroe County, West Virginia, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1925|12|5|1845|9|7}} | death_place = U.S. Virgin Islands | alma_mater = | occupation = minister, journalist, politician | party = Republican | module = {{Infobox religious biography|embed=yes | religion = Baptist }} }}

'''Christopher Harrison Payne''' (September 7, 1845 – December 5, 1925) was an African American religious, educational, and political leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in the American South during the time of slavery, Payne rose to a level of prominence achieved by few, regardless of race. His many accomplishments include being the first African American elected to the West Virginia Legislature.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/payne.html |title=Christopher Payne |publisher=Wvculture.org |date=1925-12-05 |access-date=2012-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120829052038/http://www.wvculture.org/history/payne.html |archive-date=2012-08-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.register-herald.com/news/local_news/history-on-main-program-set-for-saturday/article_bccb2bab-8b96-5420-acf0-96f2011f200f.html|title='History on Main' program set for Saturday|date=14 February 2013 }}</ref> He served as U.S. consul to St. Thomas from 1903 to 1917.<ref name=pg>{{cite web | url=https://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/WV/african.html | title=The Political Graveyard: African ancestry Politicians in West Virginia }}</ref>

==Early life==

Payne was born in Red Sulphur Springs<ref name=pg/> in Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on September 7, 1845 to Thomas Payne and Barsheba Ellison, both of whom were by then free from slavery. Thomas Payne, a cattle drover, died of smallpox when his only child, Christopher, was two years old. Christopher's mother, Barsheba, was taught to read and write by her father, the slave owner James Ellison, and her enslaved mother Fanny who was freed upon the death of Ellison's wife according to his will. Christopher's mother, in turn, taught him to read and write at a very early age. Education would remain a guiding tenet of the Payne family.<ref name="Simmons1887">Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p368-373</ref>

During the American Civil War, Payne was forced to serve as an orderly in the Confederate Army. He was able to return home in 1864<ref name="Simmons1887"/> and begin formal education for the first time after the war by attending night school while working as a farmhand during the day. He received a teaching certificate in 1868, becoming one of the first African American teachers in Summers County, West Virginia. He continued to teach and farm until he was baptized in 1875. He was licensed to preach in February 1876 and was ordained as a Baptist minister in May 1877.<ref name="Simmons1887"/>

==Religious leader==

Following his ordination in 1877, Payne founded Second Baptist Church in Hinton, West Virginia. He pastored many other churches and was said to have delivered over 1,500 sermons and converted 500 people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fuller |first=Louis |year=1976 |title=Appointment at Armageddon: Muckraking and Progressivism in the American Tradition |location=Westport |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0-8371-8261-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/appointmentatarm0000fill/page/134 134] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/appointmentatarm0000fill/page/134 }}</ref> After ministering for six years, Payne graduated from the Richmond Theological Institute in 1883<ref name="Simmons1887"/> as well as State University, now the Virginia Union University. Payne's involvement in his religious community continued as he presided over the West Virginia Baptist State Convention for 16 years, and, on several occasions, he spoke at the national assemblies of white Baptists.

==Newspaper publisher==

Payne established three newspapers in West Virginia: ''West Virginia Enterprise'',<ref name="Simmons1887"/> ''The Pioneer,'' and ''Mountain Eagle''. When founded, the ''West Virginia Enterprise'' was the only Black newspaper in West Virginia. Payne was also a correspondent for other journals, including those geared toward the white community. Payne used these venues to pursue equality between the races as well as to encourage Black people to improve their circumstances through education and the purchase of their land and homes.

==Attorney==

Payne studied law and was admitted to the West Virginia Bar in 1889, becoming one of the first Black lawyers in West Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jrclifford.org/Black%20Lawyers.htm |title=New Page 0 |access-date=2009-08-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828015003/http://www.jrclifford.org/Black%20Lawyers.htm |archive-date=2008-08-28 }}</ref>

==Politician== Payne's growing stature within both the Black and white communities led to his appointment as an alternate delegate to the 1884 Republican National Convention, later serving as a regular delegate to the 1888 Republican National Convention where Benjamin Harrison was nominated for President of the United States. State leaders pushed for Payne's appointment as Ambassador to Liberia. Instead, he was appointed Deputy Collector for the United States Internal Revenue Service in Charleston, West Virginia. Along with Byrd Prillerman, another prominent African American educator, Payne was able to persuade the West Virginia Legislature to establish the West Virginia Colored Institute, now West Virginia State University, in 1891.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/hiSTory/histamne/prillerm.html |title=Byrd Prillerman |publisher=Wvculture.org |date=1921-07-09 |access-date=2012-06-09}}</ref>

In 1896, Payne was elected to the West Virginia legislature, becoming the first African American to serve in that elective body. When the Spanish–American War of 1898 followed, Payne raised a volunteer Black regiment and saw to their arrival at the war time encampment of Camp Atkinson.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/military/spanishamerican03.html |title=Spanish–American War: 2nd Regiment West Virginia Infantry |publisher=Wvculture.org |date= |access-date=2012-06-09}}</ref>

==Ambassador== thumb|Hon C H Payne Due to his faithful service to the Republican Party, in 1903 United States President Theodore Roosevelt named Payne as Consul General to the Danish West Indies, a rare appointment for an African American at that time.<ref name="The Crisis 1917">{{cite news|title=Men of the Month|url=https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1292425234476625.pdf|access-date=31 July 2017|work=The Crisis|issue=2|publisher=NAACP|date=June 1917|volume=14|page=82}}</ref> Payne replaced as consul another African American politician, Mahlon Van Horne, who had been impeached and removed from office for alleged interference in local politics and financial regularities at his consulate.<ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=Justesen |first=Benjamin R. |title=Van Horne, Mahlon |date=2013-03-15 |url=https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-39013 |work=African American Studies Center |access-date=2023-10-09 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.39013 |isbn=978-0-19-530173-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==NAACP== Payne worked with the NAACP, serving on the planning committee for the 1917 Negro Silent Protest Parade.<ref name="NAACPCrisisSept1917">{{cite web|title=NAACP's Crisis Magazine|url=https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1292426769648500.pdf|date=1917-09-01| website=Brown University Library|access-date=31 July 2017}}</ref>

==Family life== Payne married Ann Delilah Hargo at a young age and they had eight children. His youngest son and namesake, Christopher Hansen Payne (1881–1914), graduated from Howard University and received a medical degree. He practiced medicine in Hinton, West Virginia until his early death in 1914.

Children of Christopher Payne and Ann Delilah Hargo: * Arabella Geneva Payne, 1860–1930 * Lewis W. Payne, 1862–1927 * Martha Adelaide Payne, 1866–1944 * Mary Jane Payne, 1869–1932 * James Robert Payne, 1872–1943 * Charles Henry Payne, 1874–1950 * Cyrus Alexander Payne, 1877–1944 * Christopher Hansen Payne, 1881–1914

==Later life==

Payne remained in the Danish West Indies after they were sold to the United States in 1917 and became the United States Virgin Islands. With the closing of the consulate, he then became prosecuting attorney and police judge in St. Thomas, capital of the Virgin Islands. He died in the Virgin Islands on December 5, 1925, at the age of eighty.<ref>{{cite web|author=Lawrence Kestenbaum |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/payne-payrow.html#0XU0TQU75 |title=Index to Politicians: Payne to Payrow |publisher=The Political Graveyard |date= |access-date=2012-06-09}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Christopher}} Category:1845 births Category:1925 deaths Category:19th-century American educators Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:20th-century African-American educators Category:20th-century American educators Category:African-American history of West Virginia Category:African-American journalists Category:African-American state legislators in West Virginia Category:American newspaper publishers (people) Category:Baptist ministers from the United States Category:Baptists from West Virginia Category:Editors of West Virginia newspapers Category:Internal Revenue Service people Category:Journalists from West Virginia Category:Republican Party members of the West Virginia House of Delegates Category:NAACP activists Category:People from Hinton, West Virginia Category:People from Monroe County, West Virginia Category:People from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Category:Schoolteachers from West Virginia Category:Virginia Union University alumni Category:West Virginia lawyers Category:19th-century African-American educators Category:19th-century African-American lawyers Category:19th-century members of the West Virginia Legislature Category:19th-century African-American politicians