Joshua Arthur Brockett

Rev. Joshua Arthur Brockett was a African Methodist preacher and a sculptor active in the late nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century. He originally preached in the Boston area and had a congregation in Cambridgeport. In 1890, he the African Methodist Church suspended him "on charges of heresy, schism, and disruption of the church," and he took his congregation elsewhere. The Church pardoned and reinstated him in 1891.

He publicly spoke out about the racist ideology of Henry W. Grady.

Brockett moved to Atlanta sometime around the year 1900, taking a job as a teacher at Morris Brown College. Over his lifetime, he wrote at least three works: Face to Face with Destiny, A Bitter for Every Sweet, and  Zipporah: The Maid of Midian.

Sources:

“Novel of Moses's Time by Rev. Dr. J.A. Brockett.” The Boston Globe, 18 June 1927.

Pollack, Deborah C. Visual Art and the Urban Evolution of the New South. Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2015.

“Rev. J.A. Brockett Reinstated by African M.E. Conference.” The Boston Globe, 13 June 1891.

"Rev. J.A. Brockett's Service." The Boston Globe, 8 March 1890.

“Shouts and Amen.” The Boston Globe, 24 Feb. 1890.