The African American Methodist Heritage Center (AAMHC) has a mission: “To establish and provide for the maintenance of an African American Methodist Heritage Center, connected with a historically Black institution, that will preserve and protect artifacts and be accessible for research about African American people in Methodism.” This month we discuss the history of this important institute, the present, as well as where they hope to be in 10 years! More on their website at https://aamhc-umc.org

GUESTS:

Carol Travis was baptized at Asbury UMC and is recorded as having delivered her first prayer at the age of 6 over 60 years ago. After a long career in corporate America, she retired to start another career in church administration, serving on the staff of diverse churches in urban and suburban settings  She currently works in several ministry areas at Asbury UMC and at the Annual Conference level where she helps to advance the UMC ‘s dismantling racism agenda.  She holds degrees from Trinity University and American University in Washington, DC. For 15 years, she was a board member of the African American Methodist Heritage Center and has been the Executive Assistant to the board since 2014.

HOST:

Dr. Ashley Boggan Dreff, General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. Dreff earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, specializing in American Religious History. She has previously worked as staff at the General Commission on Archives and History (2012-2014) and the Connectional Table of The United Methodist Church (2014-2016). She was the Director of United Methodist Studies and Assistant Professor Christian History at Hood Theological Seminary (Salisbury, NC), an AME Zion Seminary, from 2017-2019 and was the Director of Women’s and Gender Studies and Assistant Professor of Religion at High Point University (High Point, NC) from 2019-2020. Dreff is a lay member of the Arkansas Annual Conference and the daughter of two ordained United Methodist ministers. She is the author of Nevertheless: American Methodists and Women’s Rights (2020) and Entangled: A History of American Methodism, Politics, and Sexuality (2018).