{{Short description|American clergyman and missionary}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person |name = Levi Jenkins Coppin |image = Levi J. Coppin.jpg |caption = Coppin in 1910 |birth_date = December 24, 1848 |birth_place = Fredericktown, Maryland |death_date = {{death date and age|1924|6|25|1848|12|24}} |death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |other_names = L. J. Coppin |known_for = |occupation = writer, minister }}
'''Bishop Levi Jenkins Coppin''' (December 24, 1848-June 25, 1924) was a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the editor of the ''AME Church Review'', and one of the founders of the American Negro Academy.
Coppin was born in Fredericktown, Maryland to John Coppin and Jane (Lilly) Coppin.<ref name="UH">{{cite book |last1=Coppin |first1=Levi Jenkins |title=Unwritten History |date=1919 |publisher=A. M. E. Book Concern |location=Philadelphia, PA |url=https://www.docsouth.unc.edu/church/coppin/coppin.html |access-date=29 June 2022}}</ref> He was taught to read by his mother which was illegal behavior at the time.<ref name="Bellmyer">{{cite web | last=Bellmyer | first=Jane | title=Cecilton celebrates Juneteenth by honoring an iconic leader | website=Cecil Daily | date=2022-06-22 | url=https://www.cecildaily.com/news/cecilton-celebrates-juneteenth-by-honoring-an-iconic-leader/article_426f7196-00a5-567f-a5af-888f16154b1d.html | access-date=2022-06-29}}</ref> He joined the AME Church in 1865, and in 1866 was licensed to preach.<ref name="AA">{{cite book |last1=Crowell Hill |first1=Adelaide |last2=Kilson |first2=Martin |title=Apropos of Africa |date=1969 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780203042281 |chapter=Levi Jenkins Coppin, 1848–1924}}</ref> In 1867, he was admitted to the annual conference from the Bethel Church in Wilmington, Delaware.<ref name="AA" /> His first work as a pastor was in Philadelphia and he worked as a pastor at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore, Maryland from 1881 to 1883.<ref name="AA" /><ref name="Bethel">{{cite web | title=Our History | website=Bethel AME Church | date=2017-09-30 | url=http://bethel1.org/about-us/history/ | access-date=2022-06-29}}</ref> He attended the Philadelphia Episcopal Divinity School and graduated in 1887.<ref name="AA" /> He was elected editor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review in 1888, a position he held until 1896.<ref name="AA" /><ref name="NYA">{{cite news |title=Senior Prelate of A.M.E. Church Died June 25 at Phila |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/40471489/ |access-date=29 June 2022 |work=The New York Age |date=July 5, 1924 |page=1}}</ref> In 1900 Coppin was elected AME bishop for South Africa and he worked there and in Ethiopia as a missionary.<ref name="History of Missiology 2015">{{cite web | title=Coppin, Fannie Marion Jackson (1837-1913) | website=History of Missiology | date=2015-08-20 | url=https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/c-d/coppin-fannie-marion-jackson-1837-1913/ | access-date=2022-06-29}}</ref><ref name="fanny">{{cite book |last1=Jackson-Coppin |first1=Fanny |title=REMINISCENCES of School Life, and Hints on Teaching |date=1913 |publisher=A. M. E. Book Concern |location=Philadelphia, PA |page=122 |access-date=29 June 2022|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/jacksonc/jackson.html}}</ref><ref name="EAA">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history |date=1996 |publisher=Macmillan Library Reference |location=New York |isbn=9780028973456 |pages=660-661 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofaf00v2unse/page/660/mode/2up |access-date=29 June 2022}}</ref> Coppin was a 33° Mason and was responsible for establishing the Masonic Lodge of Capetown.<ref name="EAA" />
[[File:The Afro-American press and its editors (IA afroamericanpres00penn 0).pdf|thumb|page=11|Pdf of the 1892 book ''The Afro American Press and its Editors'' by Irvine Garland Penn]] Coppin married three times. In 1875 he married schoolteacher Martha Grinnage and they had a son, Octavius.<ref name="CA">{{cite book |title=Contemporary authors |date=2004 |publisher=Gale |location=Detroit, MI |isbn=9780787666996 |page=86 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780787666996/page/86/mode/2up |access-date=29 June 2022}}</ref> She died in 1877. In 1881 he married Fanny Jackson Coppin and they were together until her death in 1913. The couple traveled as missionaries to South Africa where they founded the Bethel Institute, a school which promoted self-help programs.<ref name="blackpast">{{cite web | title=Fannie Jackson Coppin (1837-1913) • | website=Welcome to Blackpast • | date=2007-11-20 | url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/coppin-fannie-jackson-1837-1913/ | access-date=2022-06-29}}</ref> In August of 1914 he married M. E. Thompson Coppin and the couple had one daughter, Theodosia.<ref name="CA"/>
==Bibliography== * [https://archive.org/details/inmemoriamcather00copp In memoriam: Catherine S. Campbell Beckett] (1888) - from the Internet Archive * [https://archive.org/details/relationofbaptiz00copp The relation of baptized children to the church] (1890) - from the Internet Archive * [https://archive.org/details/08403788.4685.emory.edu The key to scriptural interpretation, or, Expository notes on obscure passages] (1895) - from the Internet Archive * [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/92e8a72e-3eec-1999-e040-e00a18060764 Observations of persons and things in South Africa, 1900-1904] (1905) - from NYPL Digital Collections * [https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/coppin/menu.html Unwritten History] (1919) - ebook from ''Documenting the American South''
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Coppin, Levi Jenkins}} Category:1848 births Category:1924 deaths Category:African Methodist Episcopal bishops Category:20th-century Methodist bishops