William Yancy Bell

William Yancy Bell (or William Yancey Bell) (February 23, 1887 – April 10, 1962) received a Ph.D.^[1] from Yale University in 1924 was a sometime follower of Marcus Garvey and became a bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church c. 1933.^[2]

At Yale he specialized in the Department of Semitic Languages and Letters.^[3]

Dr. Bell was very active in civil rights issues as evidenced by his being a member of a Negro delegation to visit President Harry Truman to get him to integrate the U.S. Armed Forces.^[4] He worked with W. E. B. Dubois and ordained Martin Luther King Jr. on January 17, 1942, when King was 13 years old.^{[4][additional citation(s) needed]}

References

1. "The Mutawakkili of as-Suyuti [microform]".
2. "AARDOC: African-American Religious History, 1919–1939".
3. Negro Yearbook by Monroe Work Tuskegee Institute 1925 page 49
4. Carl C. Bell. "The life and times of Bishop William Yancy Bell Sr., Ph.D." – via ResearchGate.

• Bell WY. THE MUTAWAKKILI OF AS-SUYUTI. New Haven: Yale University, 1924
• Bardoplph R. The Negro Vanguard. New York: Rinehart & Co, Inc., 1959;
• Burkett R.K. Black Redemption: Churchmen Speak for the Garvey Movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978.