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Clergy in Public Office: A Long Tradition, Not an Outlier

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President’s Note: This column is part of The PuLSE Institute’s  Frederick Douglass Editorial Project, which examines issues of race, equity, democracy and poverty. For inquiries contact Attorney Tina M. Patterson, the president and director of research at The PuLSE Institute at info@thepulseinstitute.org.

By Anthony B. Mottley

How common is it for a clergy member to run for elected office? Historically, it’s not unusual. In the Black community, it has happened multiple times, going back to the Reconstruction period. From the founding era through Reconstruction and up to today, Americans have elected ministers and other clergy to local, state, and federal positions. In Black communities, that tradition is strong and well-documented since Reconstruction.

Since 2020, several of the top 100 most populous U.S. cities have had clergy serve as their mayor:

Yet, in Detroit, one local newspaper has seemingly mocked a current religious leader’s bid to become Detroit’s next mayor. Shortly after placing second in the August primary, a headline in the Detroit Free Press made this jab at Pastor and candidate Solomon Kinloch: “Kinloch believes in miracles. He may need one to beat Sheffield in Detroit mayor race.” Beyond the snark, that framing overlooks a long and proud history of clergy and faith-community leaders serving effectively in public office.

The legacy of achievement by Black men after the Civil War is well-known. Black political leaders in both South Carolina and Mississippi helped establish the idea of free public schools for all children. During Reconstruction, Black officeholders played a crucial role in starting the first statewide, tax-funded public-school systems in both states, although they did so within biracial Republican governments.

In 1868, in South Carolina, a constitutional convention with a Black majority drafted an education article calling for a “uniform system of public schools … open to all … without regard to race or color.” This was the state’s first statewide public-school mandate. The new system was overseen by a state superintendent, with Justus K. Jillson, a white Republican, serving as the first. Nonetheless, Black leaders—most notably a former minister, Francis L. Cardozo, who headed the education committee—worked tirelessly for integrated public schools.

That same year in Mississippi, the new constitution mandated a “uniform system of free public schools.” Black delegates and legislators played key roles in advocating for this, and Thomas W. Cardozo later became the first African American to serve as state superintendent of education in the 1870s, helping to develop the system. Earlier, the Freedmen’s Bureau had already established many of the state’s first schools, laying a foundation that Reconstruction lawmakers expanded across the state. Critics might point to local and church-run schools that existed earlier, but the statewide, tax-supported systems date to these Reconstruction constitutions—written and passed with significant Black political participation.

We can also include Reverend Hiram Rhodes Revels on this list. Revels, the only African American elected to the U.S. Congress immediately after the Civil War, was a clergyman. He previously served as a minister and as a chaplain to U.S. Colored Troops.

There is also a sizable list of white clergy who have held elected office. According to Pew Research, the first U.S. Congress (1789–1791) included six ordained ministers, and the very first Speaker of the U.S. House—Frederick Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister—also counted among them. Other ordained preachers in the Continental Congress who later served in the U.S. Congress included Benjamin Contee, Abiel Foster, James Manning, Joseph Montgomery, Jesse Root, Paine Wingate, John Witherspoon, and John Joachim Zubly. In addition, several White clergy went on to serve in the U.S. Senate, such as:

“Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past.” — Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (c. 1517)

Political rhetoric is one thing, but history shows us the way. There’s plenty of precedent for religious leaders to serve as elected officials. God knows this country desperately needs moral leadership. In Detroit, pundits are choosing sides and employing every tactic, including dirty tricks, to sway voters. Taking a backhanded swipe at one of the top vote-getters in the August primary is simply low, even for a journalist working for a newspaper that’s on life support.

Whether or not a man like Reverend Solomon Kinloch, the senior pastor of Triumph Church has the fire in his belly and the political punch to win in the November election remains to be seen, but framing this election or any other involving a clergy person as a candidate as a debate about the idea and prospect of a religious leader’s desire to hold office isn’t an insult to the candidate; it’s a confession by the journalists who don’t know their history and display their ignorance publicly.

Anthony B. Mottley is an Emmy award-winning television producer and filmmaker. He was the longtime producer of American Black Journal (ABJ) on Detroit Public Television. For years, Mottley, helped to shape some of the most important issues on Black-inspired television shows that drove the relevant and important conversations about life and death issues in the Detroit media market as they impact the city’s majority Black population. A Detroit historian, advocate, and an astute observer of the socioeconomic and political evolution of the Motor City over the years, Mottley, worked closely with the late Detroit iconic journalist Cliff Russell including when Russell served as host of ABJ.