“William Sheppard:A Hero of Waynesboro” will be the February history lecture at WTA’s Gateway. Greg Bruno looks at the impact Sheppard, an African-American Waynesboro native, had in exposing the devastating role King Leopold II of Belgium played in the Congo Free State. The lecture is at 7pm on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 329 West Main in Downtown Waynesboro.
The Rev. William Henry Sheppard was one of the earliest African Americans to become a missionary for the Presbyterian Church. After graduating from Hampton Institute and what is now Stillman College, Sheppard struggled to earn a commission as a missionary. Only after being partnered with Samuel Lapsley, “an eager but inexperienced white man form a wealthy family,” he was posted to Africa. Together Lapsley and Sheppard inaugurated the unique principle for its time of sending out white and colored workers with equal ecclesiastical rights. Lapsley’s family connections brought the two to the attention of King Leopold II and led to their work in the King’s newly acquired territory of the Congo. Sheppard’s reporting of the atrocities committed by the agents of the King led to a debate on European colonialism and imperialism.
Besides documenting the conditions in the Congo and exploitation of the natives, Sheppard was one of the earliest and possibly the first African American collector or African Art. During his twenty years in the Congo, he amassed an outstanding collection of Kuba art objects that is now housed at his alma mater.
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