W. T. Handy, Jr.
{{short description|American Methodist bishop}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = The Reverend Bishop
| name = W.T. Handy, Jr.
| honorific-suffix =
| bishop_of = Missouri Annual Conference
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| province =
| diocese = Missouri Annual Conference
| see = South Central Jurisdiction
| enthroned = 1980
| ended = 1992
| predecessor =
| successor =
| ordination = 1950
| consecration =
| other_post = Louisiana Conference District Superintendent
| birth_name = William Talbot Handy, Jr.
| birth_date = 1924
| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
| death_date = April 12, 1998
| death_place = Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
| buried =
| religion = United Methodist
| parents = William Talbot Handy
Dorothy Pauline Pleasant
| spouse = Ruth Robinson
| children = 3
| occupation = minister
activist
| alma_mater = Dillard University (BA)
Gammon Theological Seminary (BD)
Boston University (MTS)
| signature =
}}
{{infobox bishopstyles |
name= William Talbot Handy, Jr. |
dipstyle=The Reverend Bishop |
offstyle=|
relstyle=Bishop |
deathstyle= |}}
William Talbot Handy, Jr. (1924 – 1998) was an American civil rights activist and Methodist bishop. He served as the residing bishop of the Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church from 1980 to 1992. A friend of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Handy was active in the Civil Rights movement and helped lead the Louisiana State Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Baton Rouge chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was the first African-American to serve in an executive capacity at the United Methodist Publishing House.
Early life and family
Handy was born in 1924 in New Orleans to Dorothy Pauline Pleasant, a music teacher, and Rev. William Talbot Handy, a choir member of the Tuskeegee University Quartet and a Methodist minister and district superintendent who sang at the funeral of Booker T. Washington.{{Cite web|url=https://www.la-umc.org/obituary/1547371|title=Handy, Sr., Dr. William Talbot|website=www.la-umc.org|accessdate=4 May 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-one-black-family-got-its-40-acres-and-turned-them-into-intergenerational-success-2e174032|title=How one Black family got its 40 acres — and turned them into intergenerational success|first=Emma|last=Ockerman|website=MarketWatch|date=26 February 2023 |accessdate=4 May 2023}} His parents owned Handy Heights, a 116-acre farm in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.{{Cite web|url=https://handyheights.org/|title=Handy Heights|accessdate=4 May 2023}} Handy was the brother of the flutist D. Antoinette Handy and the pianist Geneva Handy Southall.{{Cite web|url=https://txarchives.org/smu/finding_aids/00295.xml|title=Texas Archival Resources Online|website=txarchives.org|accessdate=4 May 2023}}
Handy was a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Supreme Court justice and slaveowner Ephraim G. Peyton, an American Civil War veteran, and Mississippi state legislator Emanuel Handy.{{Cite web|url=https://much-ado.net/legislators/legislators/emanuel-handy/|title=Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi|accessdate=18 February 2024}}
Education
Handy graduated from Dillard University in 1948 with a bachelor of arts degree. He earned a bachelor of divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Boston University's School of Theology, where he befriended Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.{{Cite web|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/w-t-handy-jr|title=From W. T. Handy, Jr. | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute|website=kinginstitute.stanford.edu}}
Activism and ministry
Handy, like his friend King, was active in the Civil Rights Movement.{{Cite web|url=https://guides.smu.edu/c.php?g=1203408&p=8816194|title=Research Guides: Bridwell Library Archival Collections: H|first=Jane|last=Elder|website=guides.smu.edu}} He helped lead the Louisiana State Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the Baton Rouge Council on Human Relations, the Baton Rouge chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Louisiana Council of Churches.
Handy was ordained as a deacon in 1950 and as an elder in 1951 by the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Church.{{Cite web|url=https://bridwell.omeka.net/exhibits/show/threebishops/handy|title=Bishop W. T. Handy, Jr. · Three African American Bishops of The United Methodist Church · Bridwell Library Special Collections Exhibitions|website=bridwell.omeka.net}} From 1952 to 1959, he served as pastor of Newman Methodist Church in Alexandria, Louisiana. Following that appointment, he served as the pastor of St. Mark Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hand
In 1968, Handy was the first African-American hired to serve in an executive capacity at the United Methodist Publishing House,{{Cite web|url=https://www.smu.edu/perkins/news/news_archives/archives_2018/2018-three-bishops-of-the-umc|title=Bridwell Library Explores Three African American Bishops of The United Methodist Church|website=www.smu.edu}} a denominational agency in Nashville, Tennessee that had previously been accused of racial bigotry. In 1978, he returned to Louisiana to serve as the district superintendent. On July 15, 1980, he was elected bishop at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas and assigned to lead the Missouri Area of the United Methodist Church.
Handy served as president of the board of trustees for the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia and as secretary of the board of trustees of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Personal life
Handy married Ruth Robinson, whom he met at Dillard University, on August 11, 1948. They had three children: Dorothy, Stephen, and Mercedes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lewisandwrightfuneraldirectors.com/obituaries/ruth-handy|title=Ruth R. Handy Obituary 2020|website=Lewis and Wright Funeral Directors}} His wife was a schoolteacher and taught at W.H. Crogman Elementary School in Atlanta with Christine King Farris.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handy, W.T.}}
Category:20th-century American Methodist ministers
Category:20th-century Methodist bishops
Category:African-American Methodist clergy
Category:American people of Creole descent
Category:American United Methodist bishops
Category:Boston University alumni
Category:Clergy from New Orleans
Category:Dillard University alumni
Category:Interdenominational Theological Center alumni
Category:Louisiana Creole people