Edgar Amos Love was an American bishop with the Methodist Episcopal Church and cofounder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Love was born on September 10, 1891, to Julies C. Love, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Susie Love, a licensed minister and the first woman to graduate from Morgan College (Now Morgan State University).
Love attended the Normal and Industrial Academy of Morgan College from 1904 to 1909 and then Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913. While at Howard, Love, alongside two other students, Frank Coleman and Oscar James Cooper, and Howard faculty adviser Ernest Everett Just, established Omega Psi Phi Fraternity,
Love received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Howard University School of Religion in 1916 and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Boston University School of Theology in 1918. Love served as a chaplain for the 368th Infantry (The Harlem Hellfighters) of the United States Army in France during World War I. After the war, he became a history and Bible professor at Morgan College and served as the school’s athletic director and principal.
After leaving Morgan, Love became a Methodist minister with appointments in locations including Fairmount, Maryland, Washington D.C., Annapolis, Maryland, Wheeling, West Virginia, and at the John Wesley United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1922, he was elected to serve as the national chaplain for the American Negro Veterans of the World War.
In 1933, Love became district superintendent of the Washington Conference of the Methodist Church. Seven years later, in 1940, he led the Methodist Department of Negro Work and worked with the Division of Missions in New York City. He also worked alongside Mary McLeod Bethune in the Methodist Federation for Social Services from 1940 to 1944. On June 22, 1952, Rev. Love was elected Bishop of the segregated Central Conference (Baltimore area) of the Methodist Church. His tenure as bishop was marked by his efforts to integrate the church, a significant milestone in the history of the Methodist Church. He would serve in this position until he retired on June 21, 1964.
Love has served on many boards during his career, including the Methodist Church Board of Missions, the Board of Evangelism, the Board of Christian Spiritual Concerns, the Commission on Chaplains, the Coordinating Council, and the Methodist Corporation. He was president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Washington D.C., president of the Christian Conference Educational Fund for eight years, and president of the Methodist Federation for Social Action for ten years. He also came out of retirement to serve as the Bishop of the Methodist Church Atlantic Coast Area from 1966 to 1967.
Rev. Love’s involvement in civil rights activism, including helping with voter registration drives and desegregation efforts in the areas where he served as a pastor. He also officiated for often controversial interracial marriages. He was also a member of the NAACP and the Prince Hall Free Masons, and he was a trustee for numerous colleges and universities, including Bennett College and Morgan College.
Love was once married to Virginia Louise Ross, and the couple had one son, Jon E. Love. Bishop Edger Amos Love died on May 1, 1974, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 82.
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“Edgar Amos Love,” Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc, https://xinunu.org/; “Edgar Amos Love,” Riches,https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/items/show/2831; “Edgar Amos Love,” The Historical Maker Database,https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=89327.
