A Brief History of The AME Review

Founded in 1841 and revived in 1884 under the leadership of Bishop Daniel A. Payne, the A.M.E. Church Review emerged as the premier intellectual journal of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Established during a period of rapid denominational expansion following Reconstruction, the publication provided a forum where African Methodists could engage questions of theology, education, history, politics, missions, race relations, and global Black life. More than a denominational magazine, the Review served as the principal scholarly voice of African Methodism and reflected the denomination’s conviction that intellectual development was essential to racial advancement and Christian leadership.

Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Review published articles by bishops, clergy, educators, historians, and public intellectuals whose work shaped both the church and the broader Black Atlantic world. Its pages preserved debates over African missions, education, civil rights, Pan-Africanism, Black theology, and the evolving mission of the AME Church. Dennis C. Dickerson notes that the denomination consistently viewed itself as both an ecclesiastical institution and a freedom movement, and the Review became one of the primary venues where those dual commitments were interpreted, debated, and recorded for future generations.

Editors such as Reverdy C. Ransom expanded the journal’s influence by publishing essays that connected African Methodism to broader currents of Black intellectual and religious life. The Review regularly featured historical studies, memorial tributes, missionary reports, and reflections from church leaders across the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and the wider African diaspora.

Today, the A.M.E. Church Review stands as one of the longest-running Black religious journals in the world. Its volumes provide an unparalleled record of African Methodist thought and offer scholars, clergy, and laypersons a window into the theological, educational, and social concerns that shaped the AME Church from the nineteenth century to the present.

Editor-Manager of the AME Review

*Daniel A. Payne (1841 - The Church Magazine Editor - Precursor to AME Review)

1. Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1884-1888)

2. Levi Jenkins Coppin (1888-1896)

3. Hightower Theodore Kealing, Managing Editor, C. V. Roman (Assisted in Duties) (1896-1912)

4. Reverdy Cassius Ransom (1912-1936)

5. J. G. Robinson - (1936-1940)

6. Howard D. Gregg - (1940 -1944)

7. J.S. Brookens (1944-1952)

8. George Arnett Singleton - (1952-1968)

9. Ben H. Hill (1968-1972)

10. William Decker Johnson, Jr. (1972-1984)

11. Jamye Coleman Williams (1984-1992)

12. Paulette Coleman - (1992-2000 - Last General Officer As Sole Editor) 

13. Dennis Dickerson - (2000-2012 - First General Officer to Serve as Historiographer and Managing Editor)

14. Teresa Fry Brown, Chief Editor, Kimberly Detherage, Managing Editor (2012-2024)

15. Mark Tyler, Chief Editor, Aaron Treadwell, Managing Editor (2026-Current)