The image above is from the North American Informant, 1977
July 18, 1932 – January 27, 2026
Public Viewing Tuesday February 17, 2026, 3 P.M.- 8 P.M.
Celebration of Life Wednesday February 18, 2026 @ 11 A.M.
Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church, 291 Hamilton E Holmes Dr NW Atlanta
Burial: Westview Cemetery
June 1, 1950 Atlanta Daily World.
July 14, 1963 Atlanta Daily World, page 2
Berean’s first pastor.
Sebastian, William Henry (1871–1962)
W. H. Sebastian [From the North American Informant, January-February 1963].
William Henry Sebastian, a pioneer of the black Adventist work, joined the work of the Southern Missionary Society led by Edson White in 1900, and later ministered in the Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia conferences.
Early Life (1871-1899)
William Henry Sebastian was born in Marietta, Pennsylvania, September 28, 1871, to William Franklin and Missouri Sebastian. He had four sisters; two older – Jane and Amanda, and two younger – Annie and Mary. His father served several years in the U.S. Colored Infantry during the Civil War and raised his family in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church.
In 1896, William, now 24 and living in Washington, D.C., purchased Bible Readings for the Home Circle, Eden to Eden, Hymns and Tunes, Early Writings, and Gospel Workers. He had a great desire to learn more about the Bible. After reading and studying these books William became a Seventh-day Adventist. In Washington he met Dr. J. H. Howard, a staunch Seventh-day Adventist, who encouraged him to go to Battle Creek College and prepare for the ministry. William so impressed an English woman living in Washington – a Catholic lady who became acquainted with him through a cousin – that she gave him $75 to purchase a railroad ticket to Battle Creek, Michigan to attend college. After he began his studies in 1898, this same lady sent him several checks while he was there to pay for his tuition and to support him.
Early Ministry (1900-1920)
The early ministry of William Sebastian was very productive but poor health limited his accomplishments in later years. In 1900, Edson White, who had sailed down the Mississippi river in the steamer Morning Star to take the message of Christ to the black people in the South, visited Battle Creek and invited Sebastian to join the work as a Bible instructor and teacher in Yazoo City, Mississippi.
The work of the Southern Missionary Society under White’s direction in had flourished in Mississippi. This success stirred a reaction from white Mississippians who became increasingly concerned about Adventist efforts to improve the condition of blacks in that area. The white youth of Yazoo City, no doubt reflecting their parents’ attitudes, began to taunt F. R. Rogers, the white teacher at the Lintonia Adventist School, whenever they spotted him walking down the main street of the city. The brazen adolescents took pleasure in grabbing Rogers’ coattails while simultaneously chanting the maligning phrase, “Nigger lover! Nigger lover!” At other times they pelted him with brickbats.
Seeing that Rogers’ personal safety was at risk, Edson White searched for qualified black teachers to replace him. The Gospel Herald reported the change:
“This fall the school at this place (Lintonia, a suburb of Yazoo City) was begun with colored teachers. M.C. Strachan as principal, W.H. Sebastian and one assistant as the teachers. The schools in the Cotton Belt never open with large numbers, as many of the children are in the cotton fields until after the holidays; but the membership in this school is larger than it ever has been at this season of the year. From reports received, we judge that the membership is nearly 90, and the attendance about seventy. We expect this to be largely increased when the cotton picking season is over. An interesting work is being done in this suburb of Yazoo City; plans are being laid to bring in some industrial work as soon as the Society is able to do it. A bakery can be established without large expense.”
Work was difficult in Mississippi and Sebastian contracted malaria several times and suffered many brain seizures. While working in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Edson White called Sebastian and the other black workers of the Southern Missionary Society together to visit his mother on the Morning Star that was docked in the lake. Ellen White had just returned from Australia and remained in California for some months until, in the spring of 1901, she came east to attend the General Conference of 1901. With her son, W. C. White, her secretaries, and several others she stopped to see Edson and spoke at the dedication of a new church and school building. In later years Sebastian would often fondly remember Ellen G. White’s talks and the pleasant smile and words of encouragement that she had for the gospel workers as she urged them to continue working in that difficult field.
Sebastian was threatened and even shot at several times. He often thanked God for preserving his life while he did pioneering work going from house to house in Mississippi.
“I have been close to death’s door many times. I have gone to the limit of my strength and have borne great taxing burdens and have been called to look after more than one apostasy. God has blessed my labors in establishing church schools. The condition of my health grew worse under the taxing labor.”
In 1902 Sebastian was ordained to the gospel ministry in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a prolific writer and early church papers often carried stories that Sebastian wrote about his work and his faith.
While working in Vicksburg (1903), William married Georgia French, a nurse from Ohio that he had met at Battle Creek College. They partnered in ministry until her untimely death in the early 1910s.
In 1906 Sebastian was called to the Georgia Conference to be the first pastor of a small group in Atlanta, Georgia. This church, later called Berean, is now the largest African American church in the state. Sebastian was later called to Decatur, Alabama, to Dayton, Ohio, then to several places in Virginia – Lynchburg, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Danville. In all of these places he conducted tent efforts, gave Bible studies and began the first colored Adventist church of the area.
Later Life (1921-1962)
The condition of his health continued to deteriorate while he was at Danville, Virginia, and in 1921, because of illness and several attacks of brain fever, Sebastian was placed on early sustentation at age 49. With rest and medical care his health improved somewhat and he married Lula Bennett Green (born September 1, 1879) in December, 1922.
Elder Sebastian took every opportunity that he had to recount his wonderful experiences in hearing and seeing Sister White and playing “The Old Rugged Cross” on his handsaw. He and his wife continued, in a less taxing way, to do outstanding work in sharing their faith by distributing literature, engaging in Harvest Ingathering, visiting the sick, witnessing and other missionary work. After he fully retired in 1947, the Sebastians moved to his hometown of Marietta, Pennsylvania in 1948 and finally to Pine Forge, Pennsylvania in 1956.
William Henry Sebastian died November 2, 1962 at age 91 and is buried next to his parents in the Bethel A.M.E. gravesite in Marietta, Pennsylvania.
This document was discovered 8/21/2022 The author is unknown. The last five pages are captions for photographs that are yet to be discovered.
As is evident on this website’s homepage, a version of it was included in “…a commemorative book celebrating the church’s relocation into a new commodious sanctuary and church facility.”
March 5, 1941
SOUTHERN TIDINGS FEATURED ARTICLE
WORK AMONG OUR COLORED YOUTH
Anna Knight
Missionary Volunteer Assistant
Secretary, Southern Union Conference
The work in this department is onward. On August 1-7, 1940, we blazed a new trail in this Union. The Kentucky-Tennessee Conference conducted the first Colored Junior Camp ever held. We are planning to have a second Junior Camp in that conference again during this year; the date and place will be given later.
We have a number of our youth represented in all the progressive classes; and have invested among us—many Friends, Companions, and some Master Comrades. This class work is growing steadily.
By the Lord’s help we shall see bigger and better things during 1941. There is talk of a colored Junior Leaders’ Camp being held. It may be a reality.
We have four of our church schools carrying work in the ninth and tenth grades. There will be others soon.
As I look the field over, I would like to make this appeal to my fellow-workers and especially our senior youth. Ask yourselves: “In view of the opportunities and advantages granted me, how much do I owe the Lord? How can I best glorify Him, and promote the interest of my people? How can I use to the best advantage the knowledge God has given me? Should I not open my Bible and teach t he truth to my people? Are there not thousands perishing for the lack of knowledge, whom I can help if I submit myself to God so that He can use me as His instrument?” “Time is short, and what you do must be done quickly. Resolve to redeem the time. Seek not your own pleasure. Rouse yourself! Take hold of the work with a new purpose of heart. The Lord will open the way before you.”—”Testimonies,” Vol. 9, pp. 199, 200.
We must never forget this statement: “If Christians were to act in concert, moving forward as one, under the direction of one Power, for the accomplishment of one purpose, they would move the world.”—”Testimonies,” Vol. 9, p. 221. The one Power that we should work under is God and our aim is to “Save our Youth and Guide in Service.”
Dear Comrades, let us be among those Christians who will strive to carry out the above admonition!
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCES OF SEVENTI-DAY ADVENTISTS
July, 1980
COVER STORY – SOUTH ATLANTIC AND ITS BEGINNING
Today, South Atlantic Conference is the second largest regional conference with 20,135 members and 125 congregations.
South Atlantic was formally organized into a conference in December, 1945, three hundred and ninety-eight delegates, representing the black constituency of the four Southeastern states, North 19 delegates at large, assembled in the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church to organize the South Atlantic Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. Elder E. F. Hackman, then President of the Southern Union Conference presided over the meeting.
The first officers elected were: H. D. Singleton, President; L. S. Follette, Secretary-Treasurer; F. H. Jenkins, Educational and M.V. Secretary; and Richard Robinson, Publishing Secretary. At the time of the organization of the Conference, there were 62 churches with a total membership of 3,614.
Work Among the Freedmen in Georgia and North Carolina
South Atlantic Conference had its beginnings in 1876, when Evangelist C. O. Taylor presented the Advent message to an integrated audience in Quitman, Georgia. A third of the audience was black. The following year he spoke three times to the colored people in Griffin, Georgia.
The first “colored” convert was a preacher-sharecropper from Houston County, Georgia. He lived on the plantation of Mr. Killen who was a recent convert. He was baptized in March, 1878. In April, 1879 nine freedmen were baptized.
Between 1900 and 1902 three ministers were assigned to Atlanta—L. C. Sheafe, M. C. Sturdevant, and C. A. Hall. Despite the efforts of these men there were no colored churches in Georgia. In January, 1907, W. H. Sebastian was assigned to Atlanta. Meetings were held in his front room.
In April he held his first evangelistic crusade assisted by S. G. Dent (grandfather of Dr. Carl A. Dent of Riverside Hospital).
In 1908, after an evangelistic crusade was held, a church, two schoolrooms, and a treatment room was erected on Green Ferry Avenue. Anna Knight came to Atlanta as a Bible Instructor and nurse. While there she lectured on her mission experience in India and the first colored church was organized.
About the same time C. O. Taylor entered Georgia the New England Tract Society was sending tracts into North Carolina. “Among the reader’s replies published in 1877, in Review and Herald appeared two from colored people in North Carolina, one from a self-taught traveling preacher who asked for tracts to distribute to his congregations and who told how he had studied at night in his slave cabin.
The work among the “colored” people progressed very slowly. Few dedicated workers could be found to work perseveringly among the “colored” people. The harvest was plenteous but the laborers were few. The slave mentality of the South did not die with the Emancipation Proclamation, it seemed to have become more intense as a result of whites violently opposed to any religion that would uplift and elevate the “colored” man. Therefore, when Elder J. O. Corliss, Superintendent of the Southeastern Field reported there were 267 whites and twenty coloreds this proved that there was a great need to reach the millions of “colored” people.
In the June 11, 1908, issue of the Review and Herald reported that “our only ‘colored’ minister’s tent ropes cut and and the minister forced to leave by order of the town council because his colored converts refused to work on the Sabbath.” The minister who sparked the controversy was John Manns. Elder Manns was a stalwart messenger throughout Florida.
In 1911 J. W. Manns and John Green conducted a meeting in Jacksonville that resulted in eleven converts. Three sons of the church became denominational leaders: H. D. Singleton, W. S. Lee, and V. L. Roberts.
In the same year M. C. Stachan and J. F. Green held meetings in Miami, which resulted in a church being organized in 1912.
Blacks Accept the Third Angel’s Message in South Carolina
In 1896, I. E. Kimball, former President of Vermont Conference went to Charleston. He made contacts with the churches through WCTU and spoke in colored churches and distributed the Signs of the Times.
He brought volunteers from the North, operated a night school for “colored” people and established a mission for underprivileged whites.
In 1900 he organized a church of seventeen white and “colored” believers. At the end of the year the mission, the church and the school disappeared from the record.
In 1902, Peace Haven Industrial School for Colored and Blackville claimed to be the “only school teaching colored people SDA doctrine.”
Seven years after Kimball left Charleston a church and school was organized among its members where they were keeping the Sabbath since Kimball.
In 1905, D. E. Blake, evangelist, organized a church in Spartanburg. In 1907 Sidney Scott replaced D. E. Blake as evangelist for South Carolina. By 1908 he had organized a school and church in Greensville.
Among the believers baptized in South Carolina was B. W. Abney and F. S. Keitts. By 1916, there were more colored believers than whites. It is from the humble beginnings that South Atlantic has achieved such phenomenal growth.
Stephanie Johnson
RESOLUTION FOR THE DIVISION OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC CONFERENCE
WHEREAS the growth of the Black work will be enhanced by the formation of a new Black conference by dividing the large territory and membership of the South Atlantic Conference into two conferences of smaller geographic territory, and
WHEREAS a feasibility study of the territory and financial strength of the South Atlantic Conference indicates that two conferences may operate with financial soundness, excepting projected losses for two or more years, serving the total South Atlantic membership; and
WHEREAS a division of territory, including forming one conference of North and South Carolina and all of Georgia except a southerly portion of Georgia as defined by Exhibit A attached and the other conference made up of Florida east of the Apalachicola River and the identified portion of south Georgia as defined in said Exhibit A, and
WHEREAS potential for growth as shown by past progress indicates that the greater growth potential is in Florida, the southerly conference of Florida and south Georgia should begin as the smaller of the two conferences in membership and projected income and expense, and
WHEREAS headquarters for the north conference should remain in Atlanta as the best transportation hub for its territory and an office building is currently under construction there, and headquarters for the south conference should be in Orlando as the geographic center of the proposed south conference territory, and
WHEREAS projected operating losses of the two conferences are the south conference $55,953 and the north conference $137,967 for the first year, as shown on Exhibit B attached, and
WHEREAS capital needs as estimated are as follows:
Equipment for new office and purchase of a modest property for a new office building for south conference as shown on Exhibit C attached $174,075
Start up salaries for three months prior to the opening of the new conference, Exhibit D attached $61,442
Computer purchase, estimated 25,000
Evangelistic equipment $15,000
Working capital cash needed for the start up of the new conference $100,000
Total including the aforementioned losses $569,437
It was, therefore, VOTED to recommend the formation of two conferences to the South Atlantic membership, the Southern Union Conference, and the General Conference, and to begin operation as two conferences January 1, 1981, made up of churches as identified on Exhibit E, attached, with a staff of workers as shown on Exhibit F, attached; and to request financial assistance to bring about this division of the following:
General Conference Appropriation $375,000
Southern Union Conference Appropriation $100,000
South Atlantic Members $125,000
Total Needed $600,000
Harvested from the Internet Archive Digital Library
Atlanta Berean
Seventh-day Adventist Church
“…Where the light of the Son shines.”
Breath of Life Recording Artist Loren Mulraine will be in concert at Berean, this Sabbath,July 29 at 7PM!…Other Musical Guests will include Melody Carter, Divine, New Creation, Melvin Mapp, and Laura Hunter-Valcin…Admission is Free!… Senior Pastor, William L. Winston, will preach for the 11am service…Pastor Gregory Saunders, will soon leave Berean to become the Senior Pastor of the Marietta Shiloh and Gainesville SDA Churches…Special THANKS to all Vacation Bible School participants…! We had a Hallelujah Good Time…!We WON the GLORY 1340 Atlanta Food Bank Challenge! Thank You GLORY for $13,400 towards our New Educational Complex. Thank you Berean for 9,000 pounds of food donated to the Community!…Thanks for visiting us on the web!… We hope to see you in person soon!…
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Atlanta Berean SDA Church
291 H.E. Holmes Drive
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