{{Short description|African American educator, editor, and pastor}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Daniel J. Sanders | image = Rev. D. J. Sanders, D.D.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Daniel Jackson Sanders | birth_date = {{Birth date|1847|02|15}} | birth_place = Winnsboro, South Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1907|03|06|1847|02|15}} | death_place = Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. | resting_place = | occupation = Clergyman, newspaper publisher, educator | employer = | spouse = | children = | relatives = | awards = | education = {{Plainlist| * Brainerd Institute * Western Theological Seminary }} | party = | signature = Signature of Daniel Jackson Sanders.png | office = President of Johnson C. Smith University | term_start = October 12, 1891 | term_end = March 6 1907 | predecessor = Rev. William F. Johnson | successor = Dr. Henry L. McCrorey }} '''Daniel Jackson Sanders''' (February 15, 1847 – March 6, 1907) was an American clergyman, academic administrator, and newspaper publisher. He served as president of Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) in North Carolina for seventeen years, becoming one of most prominent Black educators in the South. He had various positions of importance with the Presbyterian Church of the United States and was considered the leading Black Presbyterian minister in the United States when he died. Sanders also established, edited, and published the ''Africo-American Presbyterian'' newspaper.
==Early life== Sanders was born a slave near Winnsboro, South Carolina on February 15, 1847.<ref name="death">{{Cite journal |last=Cowan |first=Edward P. |date=November 16, 1907 |title=Rev. D. J. Sanders, D.D. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Assembly_Herald/LgkXAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |journal=The Assembly Herald |volume=13 |page= |pages=228-229 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Cyclopaedia">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9kbAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA326 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |publisher=James T. White & Company |year=1896 |volume=VI |location=New York |page=326 |access-date=2020-11-30 |via=Google Books}}</ref> His parents were Laura and William Sanders, who were enslaved by Reverend Thomas Hall and Major Samuel Barkley, respectively.<ref name="encyc">{{Cite web |last=Massey Jr. |first=R. A. |date=August 2022 |title=Sanders, Daniel Jackson |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/sanders-daniel-jackson |access-date=July 7, 2025 |website=NCpedia |publisher=State Library of North Carolina}}</ref> When Barkley died, he left his estate, including enslaved people, to Barkley.<ref name="encyc" /> Barkley allowed Sanders to learn the alphabet and also taught him his trade of shoemaking, starting at the age of nine years.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name="Cyclopaedia" /> When Sanders was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, he could read and spell.<ref name="encyc" />
When he was nineteen years old, Sanders left Winnsboro in March 1866 and worked as a shoemaker in Chester, South Carolina.<ref name="encyc" /> He enrolled in the Red Oak Academy.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=1898-08-24 |title=Dr. Sanders in 'The Interior' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-charlotte-observer-dr-sanders-in-t/176146065/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Charlotte Observer |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> There, he met John and William Knox, white brothers who were a teacher and student at Red Oak Academy; the brothers tutored Sanders in arithmetic, geography, grammar, Greek, history, and Latin.<ref name="Cyclopaedia" /><ref name="encyc" /><ref name=":5" /> This prepared Saunders to enroll in the Brainerd Institute, a Presbyterian normal and industrial school for Blacks that that opened in Chester in 1868.<ref name="encyc" /> Sanders graduated from the institute after two years and started working as a tutor there in 1870.<ref name="encyc" /> Later, he was the principal of a public school for Black students in Chester.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Moore Parker |first=Inez |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp48125 |title=The Biddle-Johnson C. Smith University Story |publisher=Observer Craftsman Company |year=1975 |isbn=0914998056 |editor-last=Callison |editor-first=Helen Vassy |location=Charlotte, North Carolina |page= |pages=12-14 |language=en |ref=}}</ref>
In 1870, the Fairfield Presbytery licensed Sanders as a minister in the northern branch of the Presbyterian Church of the United States.<ref name=":4" /> He enrolled in the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1871, graduating with honors in Hebrew and Sanskrit in 1874.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name=":4" />
== Career == Sander became a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church (Colored), also known as the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church, in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1874.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=January 19, 1879 |title=A New Wilmington Paper |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-wilmington-sun/213865/ |url-access=subscription |work=The Wilmington Sun |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="Cyclopaedia" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1875-02-14 |title=First Presbyterian Church (Col'd) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-journal-first-presbyterian-chu/176145755/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Daily Journal |location=Wilmington, North Carolina |pages=4 |via=Wilmington, North Carolina}}</ref> He was appointed temporary clerk of the Atlantic Synod in December 1874.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1875-01-05 |title=Atlantic Synod |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-wilmington-morning-star-atlantic-syn/176145428/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Wilmington Morning Star |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> From 1875 to 1890, he also worked as the principal of Wilmington's school for Black children.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name=":4" /> He left both positions in 1876 to become a fundraiser for the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen in Scotland and England.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name="death" /> He returned to Wilmington after more than a year having secured $6,120.17 for to Biddle University, which was located in Charlotte, North Carolina.<ref name="encyc" /> In 1878, Sander was appointed to the board of directors of Biddle University, serving in this capacity for the next fourteen years.<ref name=":4" /><ref name="encyc" /> He also resumed his position as the pastor at the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in 1878.<ref name="encyc" />
On January 1, 1879, Sanders established the ''Africo-American Presbyterian'' newspaper and served as its editor and publisher until he died.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name="death" /><ref name=":1" /> The newspaper was initially published twice month but expanded to weekly.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NvqN2A1oR9EC&pg=PA558 |title=N. W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual |date= |publisher=N. W. Ayer & Son |year=1892 |location=Philadelphia |pages=558 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Danky |first=James Philip |url=http://archive.org/details/africanamericanne00dank |title=African-American newspapers and periodicals: a national bibliography |last2=Hady |first2=Maureen E. |date=1998 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00788-8 |publication-place=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=21 |language=en}}</ref> Sanders published articles and editorials that highlighted racial injustice and violence, while endorsing the teachings of the Presbyterian Church.<ref name="Coalter">{{Cite book |last=Coalter |first=Milton J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ECvxrVNecmQC&pg=PA372 |title=The Diversity of Discipleship: Presbyterians and Twentieth-century Christian Witness |last2=Mulder |first2=John M. |last3=Weeks |first3=Louis |date= |publisher=Westminster/John Knox Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-664-25196-3 |location=Louisville, Kentucky |pages=196–197 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> ''Africo-American Presbyterian'' was published until 1939 when it merged with ''The'' ''Southern Evangelist''.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.; Charlotte, N.C.) 1879-1938 [Online Resource] |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2011254019/ |access-date=July 7, 2025 |website=Library of Congress}}</ref>
In 1891, Sanders left Wilmington and became the pastor of the Pilgrims' Chapel Church and Chadbourn Presbyterian Church.<ref name="encyc" /> Sanders became the first Black president of Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) on October 12, 1891, and served in that capacity for seventeen years.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name=":4" /> Under his leadership, the campus expanded by sixty acres, the first Black intercollegiate football game was played (between Biddle and Livingstone College), and the number of annual graduates increased threefold.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name=":4" /> One of his efforts was to address the university library, most of which had been lost in a fire.<ref name=":4" /> In 1904, Sanders contacted his friend, Booker T. Washington, who connected him with Andrew Carnegie.<ref name=":4" /> After Sanders and Washington visited Carnegie in Pittsburgh, Carnegie donated $12,500 for to build a library for the university.<ref name=":4" /> Sanders also established an academic relationship with eighteen affiliate schools, which served as "feeder schools" for the university.<ref name=":4" /> While he was president of Biddle, Sanders taught Hebrew, systematic theology, and church government in the university's theology school.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> He became one of the most prominent Black educators in the South.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=1907-03-07 |title=Dr. D. J. Sanders Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-charlotte-news-biddles-head-passes/176148143/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Charlotte News |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Sanders served on the Presbyterian Assembly three times and was appointed to the Detroit Assembly.<ref name="Cyclopaedia" /> He was a delegate to the Presbyterian Ecumenical Council that met in Toronto, Canada in September 1892.<ref name="Cyclopaedia" /> He was a delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance in England in 1895.<ref name="death" /> He was also the first Black moderator of the Yadkin Presbytery and the Cape Fear Presbyterian and was also the clerk of the Atlantic Presbytery, the Yadkin Presbytery, and the Catawba Synod.<ref name="Cyclopaedia" /><ref name="encyc" /> He was considered the leading Black Presbyterian minister in the United States when he died.<ref name="death" />
== Honors == Sanders received an honorary Master of Arts and Doctor of Divinity from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.<ref name=":4" /><ref name="Cyclopaedia" /> He also received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Biddle University.<ref name="Cyclopaedia" /><ref name=":5" />
==Personal life== Sanders married Fannie Price on September 16, 1880.<ref name="encyc" /> The couple had nine children.<ref name="encyc" />
Sanders became ill with gastritis and la grippe on December 1, 1906.<ref name=":6" /> He died at his home on the Biddle University campus on March 6, 1907, at the age of 61 years.<ref name="death" /><ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1907-03-14 |title=State News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-raleigh-enterprise-state-news/176148379/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Raleigh Enterprise |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> His funeral was held at Biddle University on March 8, 1907.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news |date=1907-03-09 |title=Funeral of Dr. Sanders |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-charlotte-news-funeral-of-dr-sander/176148725/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Charlotte News |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Sanders was buried in Pinewood Cemetery (now the Ninth Street Cemetery) in Charlotte.<ref name="encyc" /><ref name=":7" /> The Color Minister's Union of Charlotte held a memorial service for Sanders on March 19, 1907.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1907-03-18 |title=The Colored Minister's Union of Charlotte |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-charlotte-news-the-colored-minister/176148550/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Charlotte News |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Sanders' estate was valued at $25,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=25,000|start_year=1909|r=0|fmt=c|cursign=$}} in 2024 dollars), including real estate, personal property, furniture, stocks, and life insurance.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1907-04-09 |title=Dr. Sander's Estate Worth $25,000 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-charlotte-news-dr-sanders-estate-w/176150044/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |work=The Charlotte News |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Daniel J.}} Category:1847 births Category:1907 deaths Category:African-American Christian clergy Category:20th-century African-American clergy Category:19th-century Presbyterians Category:American Presbyterian ministers Category:19th-century American slaves Category:People from Winnsboro, South Carolina Category:American academic administrators Category:Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Category:Western Theological Seminary alumni Category:19th-century African-American educators Category:19th-century American educators Category:19th-century African-American academics Category:19th-century American academics Category:African-American publishers (people) Category:19th-century newspaper founders Category:Johnson C. Smith University faculty Category:19th-century newspaper publishers (people) Category:20th-century American newspaper editors Category:19th-century American Christian clergy