1848–1924

Introduction

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Born: De­cem­ber 24, 1848, Fred­er­ick­town, Ma­ry­land.

Died: June 25, 1924, Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Buried: Me­ri­on Me­mo­ri­al Park, Ba­la Cyn­wyd, Penn­sy­lvan­ia.

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Biography

Levi was the son of John Cop­pin and Jane Li­ly. He mar­ried three times: Hs se­cond wife was to Fan­ny Jack­son (mar­ried 1881) and his third wife was physician Me­lis­sa Ev­elyn Thomp­son (mar­ried 1914).

His mo­ther, a free black, taught him to read and write, which was il­le­gal at the time. Af­ter the Am­er­ican ci­vil war, his mo­ther be­came the first teach­er at a school for black child­ren es­tab­lished in Fred­er­ick­town. Levi ev­en­tu­al­ly taught there, too.

In 1865, Levi joined the Af­ri­can Me­tho­dist Epis­copal (AME) Church. He was li­censed to preach in Wilm­ing­ton, De­la­ware, in 1876, and joined the AME Phi­la­del­phia Con­fer­ence in 1877.

Until 1900 Cop­pin served AME church­es in Ma­ry­land, De­la­ware, and Penn­syl­van­ia, and for eight years he ed­it­ed the AME Church Re­view.

In 1900, he was elect­ed an AME bi­shop, and 1902 he and his wife Fan­ny went to South Af­ri­ca on mis­sion work. Af­ter re­turn­ing to Am­er­ica, he served as a bi­shop in South Ca­ro­li­na and Ala­ba­ma.

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