John Jamison Moore

Moore was born enslaved in 1818, in what is today West Virginia.{{Cite book |last=Adkins |first=Jan Batiste |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/African_Americans_of_San_Francisco/uJAsfkUUqOoC |title=African Americans of San Francisco |date=2012 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-7619-0 |pages=12 |language=en}} At age 15, he and his mother escaped to Philadelphia to live in freedom."About Our Founder." First A.M.E Zion Church, San Francisco. 2017. Accessed November 19, 2018. http://www.firstamezionsf.org/about-our-founder{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Moore soon became involved in the African American Churches in that city. He eventually became a prominent preacher at the AME Zion Church in Philadelphia.{{Cite news|title=AME Zion Celebrates 125 Years|last=Morris|first=John|date=1977|work=Sun Reporter (San Francisco, Calif.)}}

Moore also traveled to New York City to participate in activities at the AME Zion Church there. He wrote about this church in his book, The History of The AME Zion Church in America. Founded in 1796 in the City of New York.{{Cite journal|last=Roff|first=Sandra|date=1985|title=Researching The History of Blacks in New York State|journal=Afro-Americans in New York Life and History|volume=9|pages=43}}{{Cite book|title=The History of The AME Zion Church in America. Founded in 1796 in the City of New York.|last=Moore|first=John Jamison|publisher=Teacher's Journal Office|year=1884|location=York, Pennsylvania}}

In 1852, Moore moved to San Francisco to further the church in that city. According to Bishop B.J. Walls, Moore was credited with,

"Planting the core tenets of freedom, as practiced by his denomination, on the Pacific Coast, in 1852".{{Cite news|title=Ministers, Laymen Meet: Zion Bishops Council Keys Call to Freedom|date=January 25, 1964|work=New Pittsburgh Courier }}

In August 1852, Moore founded the first AME Zion Church in San Francisco, initially located in a make shift space.{{Cite news |date=1952-08-15 |title=Cal. Senate recognizes 100th birthday of S.F. Zion church |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-tribune-cal-senate-recogniz/176384296/ |access-date=2025-07-11 |work=Los Angeles Tribune |pages=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}

In May 1854, under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Marcus Decatur Ward of St. Cyprian AME Church at Jackson and Virginia Streets in San Francisco, Moore founded the first private school for African-American children who could not attend local public school, called the San Francisco Colored School.{{Cite book |last=Willard |first=Ruth Hendricks |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sacred_Places_of_San_Francisco/291OAAAAMAAJ |title=Sacred Places of San Francisco |last2=Wilson |first2=Carol Green |last3=Baird |first3=Joseph Armstrong |date=1985 |publisher=Presidio Press |isbn=978-0-89141-192-5 |pages=78 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Ask A Librarian: Colored Schools |url=https://napahistory.org/ask-a-librarian-colored-schools/ |access-date=2025-07-11 |website=Napa County Historical Society}}{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Martha C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TsHPDAAAQBAJ |title=From Labor to Reward: Black Church Beginnings in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, 1849-1972 |date=2016-06-24 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-3281-4 |pages=5–6, 11–12 |language=en}} The school classes were held in the church basement, Moore served as the first teacher and principal. He created the school because African-American children were barred from the public schools in San Francisco. The first year, 23 students attended the school.{{Cite journal |last=Montesano |first=Philip M. |date=July 1, 1973 |title=San Francisco Black Churches in the Early 1860's: Political Pressure Group |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article/52/2/145/30958/San-Francisco-Black-Churches-in-the-Early-1860-s |journal=California Historical Quarterly |language=en |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=145–152 |doi=10.2307/25157430 |issn=0097-6059 |jstor=25157430 |url-access=subscription}} In 1872, the California Supreme Court ruled Ward v. Floor current segregation in educational practices as unconstitutional, breaching U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Marne L. |date=2012-01-01 |title=African American Women, Wealth Accumulation, and Social Welfare Activism in 19Th-Century Los Angeles |journal=The Journal of African American History |volume=97 |issue=4 |pages=376–400 |doi=10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.4.0376 |jstor=10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.4.0376 |s2cid=149013832}}

In 1862, Moore founded and became head editor of The Lunar Visitor newspaper.{{Cite journal |last=Segady, Thomas |first=Berardi, Gayle |date=1991 |title=Community Identification and Cultural Formation: The Role of African-American Newspapers in the American West |journal=The Griot |volume=10 |pages=13–19}} According to the First AME Zion Church's website, the Lunar Visitor newspaper, "promoted civil rights and advocated developing institutions for educational, social and political skills useful in working toward a full participation in American Society,". The newspaper was also "The only African-American magazine in the western part of the country," during the period it was being printed, according to Thomas Segady.

In spring of 1868, Rev. Moore left California,{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Jennie |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jennie_Carter/99k_g8EY0-MC |title=Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West |last2=Gardner |first2=Eric |date=2007 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-60473-313-6 |pages=25 |language=en}} and was consecrated a Bishop in the denomination.

Moore later moved to Salisbury, North Carolina, where he married Francis Moore. He died on December 9, 1893, on the train home from a conference in Western North Carolina. He was buried in Salisbury.

• African Americans in San Francisco

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• [https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/moorej/moore.html John Jamison Moore, The History of The AME Zion Church in America. Founded in 1796 in the City of New York (1884)]

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Category:1818 births

Category:1893 deaths

Category:19th-century African-American educators

Category:19th-century American clergy

Category:19th-century American educators

Category:19th-century American slaves

Category:African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishops

Category:Clergy from San Francisco

Category:Religious leaders from West Virginia

Category:Educators from California