BISHOP FREDERICK CALHOUN JAMES

Funeral services for Bishop Frederick Calhoun James will be held on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at 12:01 p.m. at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 819 Woodrow St., Columbia, with the Rev. Dr. Caesar R. Richburg, pastor, presiding and Bishop Samuel Lawrence Green Sr., presiding prelate of Seventh Episcopal District, eulogist. Interment will follow in Crescent Hill Memorial Gardens, 2603 Two Notch Road, Columbia.
Ecumenical theologian, advocate for fair and decent housing, proponent of civil rights, political leader and public servant are only a few of the characteristics of Bishop Frederick Calhoun James.
Bishop Frederick Calhoun James was born on April 7, 1922, in Prosperity, South Carolina, the son of Edward and Rosa Lee James. He graduated from Drayton Street High School, Newberry, South Carolina. He graduated from Bettis Junior College with an Associate of Arts Degree and earned his B.A. degree in History/English from Allen University (1943) and his Master of Divinity degree from the Howard University School of Religion (1947). He also studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He married Theressa Gregg on Dec. 30, 1944.
As a champion for civil rights, the Rev. James became a community and state social and political action leader. In 1960, he was elected consultant/director of Social Action of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In this position, he formed a close relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1963, he became president of the Effective Sumter Movement of Sumter, a historic chapter in civil rights. In 1967, as pastor of Mt. Pisgah AME Church, the Rev. James led the sponsorship of the first 221(d) Rent Supplement Housing Project in South Carolina. In 1969, he initiated the first 221(h) Home Ownership Project in the state. He was South Carolina’s first African American Congressional District member of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the Department of Social Services. He was the first African American to serve on the board of directors at NBSC (National Bank of South Carolina), now SYNOVUS, the first African American member of the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce and the first AME bishop elected from a South Carolina AME church pulpit. From 1987 to 1992, he was a member of the Columbia Housing Authority and served as vice chair. He also served as vice president of the S.C. Christian Action Council.
In 1972, he was elected to the AME Bishopric and was assigned as the presiding bishop of the AME Church in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Mozambique. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, he established schools, a publishing house, churches and other institutions.
Bishop James later was assigned bishop in Arkansas and Oklahoma (1976). He formed a lifelong friendship with then-attorney Bill Clinton. In 1984, he was assigned to the 7th Episcopal District, state of South Carolina. In each of these positions, he built housing projects, strengthened schools and led two colleges to full accreditation: Shorter College, North Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1981, and Allen University, Columbia, in 1992. In 1992, Bishop James was assigned ecumenical bishop and chaplaincy endorsement officer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church International. In 1993, he was given major fiscal and reconciliation duties as bishop of the Second Episcopal District (Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and North Carolina) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the district was stabilized in many ways.
In 1994, he was selected by President Clinton as an official member of the delegation to attend the inauguration of South African President Nelson Mandela, and in 1998, he was again chosen to accompany President and Mrs. Clinton on an official visit to South Africa.
Bishop James penned "Flying Home From The Nelson Mandela Inauguration" in May 1994 aboard Air Force Two and at a portion of the delegation.
Bishop James is a former member of the White House Advisory Board on Historical Black Colleges and Universities, the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Board on Religious Freedom and national vice president of the Interfaith Alliance. A life member of the NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and a 33-degree Mason, he was inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame (1991) and the Columbia Housing Authority Wall of Fame (1994). In January of 2003, Bishop James was awarded the state’s highest honor, The Order of the Palmetto, for his significant contributions to South Carolina.
He retired from active duty in 1996, and he and Dr. Theressa Gregg James, episcopal supervisor, returned to live at their home in Columbia.
Retired Episcopal Supervisor Dr. Theressa Gregg James transitioned Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, in Columbia. Dr. Theressa Gregg James and Bishop James celebrated 76 years of wedded bliss on Dec. 30, 2020.
Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family of Bishop Frederick C. James, 2421 Lang Road, Columbia, SC 29204.
Professional services are entrusted to Palmer Memorial Chapel, 1200 Fontaine Place, Columbia, SC 29223.