Tags: Christian Bishop.
John Melville Burgess (March 11 1909 – August 24 2003) was the twelfth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in Boston Massachusetts from 1970 to 1975 and the first African American to head an Episcopal diocese.Burgess was the son of Theodore Thomas (a dining car waiter on the Pere Marquette Railway) and Ethel Inez Beverly (a kindergarten teacher) Burgess. He attended Central High School in Grand Rapids Michigan. He received a B.A. in 1930 and an M.A.