author
Theodore DeBose Bratton
1862–1944
A leading Episcopal churchman in the South, he served for decades as bishop of Mississippi and also wrote on faith, mission work, and public life. His career stretched from parish ministry and teaching into national church leadership during a period of major change in the American South.
1 Audiobook
Wanted—Leaders! : A study of Negro development
by Theodore DeBose Bratton
About the author
Born near Winnsboro, South Carolina, in 1862, Theodore DuBose Bratton studied at Sewanee and went on to earn both his B.A. and B.D. from the University of the South. He was ordained in the late 1880s and began his ministry as a teacher and chaplain before taking on parish work.
Bratton is best remembered as bishop of Mississippi, a role he held from 1903 until his death in 1944. Alongside his diocesan work, he was active in wider Episcopal Church leadership and was known as a churchman, educator, and writer whose books and addresses reflected his concern for Christian mission and leadership.
His life also reflected the complicated history of his era: he served as chaplain general of the United Confederate Veterans, a detail that places him firmly within the cultural world of the post-Civil War South. For readers today, his work offers a window into American religious life, regional identity, and church leadership in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.