1884 he moved to a district including Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, North Missouri, South Kansas, and California. He organized the Colorado conference in September 1887. From 1888 to 1892 his district included Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Iowa. He held numerous positions in the national AME church as well. He was president of the financial board of the church. He was a leader in the movement of the AME church to send missionaries to Africa and Latin America, particularly in a speech at a general conference of the church in May 1872. He worked with Frederick Douglass and others to push for the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, pointing particularly to an 1882 incident when Bishop Payne was removed from a railroad car and forced to walk to the next station while travelling in Florida. Brown was important in the move to include women in the AME ministry, licensing Emily Calkins Stevens to preach in the New Jersey conference in 1883. He was an outspoken and radical opponent of lynchings, especially in the 1890s. He was a delegate to the first World Methodist Ecumenical Conference in London in 1881 and to the second conference in Washington, DC in 1891. Personal life On February 13, 1852, he married Mary L. Lewis in Louisville, Kentucky. They had nine children, including John M. Brown and Mary L. Brown, medical doctors; William L Brown and Martha L Brown, educators; Daniel L Brown and George A Brown, ministers. Brown died on March 16, 1893, in Washington, DC. His funeral was at Metropolitan AME Church and was presided over by Bishop A. W. Wayman. He was buried at Graceland Cemetery. References Sources Seraile, William. Fire in His Heart: Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner and the AME Church. University of Tennessee Press, 1998. 1817 births 1852 deaths 19th-century American clergy Activists for African-American civil rights African-American abolitionists African-American educators African-American journalists African-American Methodists African Methodist Episcopal bishops American educators American male journalists Methodist abolitionists People from Odessa, Delaware Underground Railroad people