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Benjamin Tucker Tanner
1835 - 1923
BiographyBenjamin Tucker Tanner was born in 1835 to Hugh and Isabella Tanner and to 11 other siblings. When he was 9, Tanner used to deliver the Martin R. Delany newspaper called the Mystery to help his father financially. In 1851, Tanner enrolled in the Allegheny Institute also known as the Avery Institute. The institute was founded by Reverend Charles Avery in 1849 to train black youths. Tanner supported himself and paid for tuition by working as a barber. Tanner converted to the A.M.E. Church in 1856. After spending a year instead of five at the institute, Tanner later attended the Pittsburgh Western Theological Seminary and graduated in 1860. Benjamin Tanner became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1858. In addition to his ministry, he was noted to be greatly interested and involved in politics and current affairs, particularly that which affected African Americans at the time. Tanner later retired from preaching in 1868 and assumed the role of the editor of the paper of the A.M.E Church known as the Christian Recorder. The Christian Recorder was purchased by the church under the name of the Mystery, the paper Tanner used to deliver as a child, then to the Christian Herald and finally to the Christian Recorder. He served as the editor for the Recorder for 16 years and stepped down in 1884 but continued to contribute essays for publication. Tanner died on January 14, 1923. Tanner’s son, Henry Ossawa Tanner was a well-recognized painter whose paintings such as “Banjo” and “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” have gained much fame.
