Talk:Thomas H. Branch

Thomas H. Branch has been listed as one of the Philosophy and religion good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: August 11, 2021. (Reviewed version).

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To-do list:
edit history watch purge Expand "Glacier View Controversy" section, to include more background, history, theological issues, and details of the Glacier View meeting itself Add to "Adventist Responses to Criticisms" section, ideally with material from Adventist scholars etc.

A fact from Thomas H. Branch appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 August 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Seventh-day Adventist Church replaced the African-American missionary Thomas H. Branch with a white man to appease the government of the British Central Africa Protectorate?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2020/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Thomas H Branch.

Wikipedia

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Seven Pandas (talk) 22:17, 26 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that the Seventh-day Adventist Church withdrew Thomas H. Branch as a missionary to the British Central Africa Protectorate to appease the colonial government? "because the Seventh-day Adventist Church wanted the mission to be viewed in a positive light by the colonial government and removal all doubts of loyalty, in 1907 the General Conference decided to send a white man, Joel C Rogers, to Nyasaland to take charge of the mission" from: Chaudhuri, Nupur; Strobel, Margaret (1992). Western Women and Imperialism: Complicity and Resistance. Indiana University Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-253-20705-0.
- ALT1:... that the government of British Central Africa Protectorate opposed the posting of missionary Thomas H. Branch to the territory because he was an African American? "the colonial government's unease with the presence of African Americans in the country, especially their regualr contact with indigenous peoples" from: Kalinga, Owen J. M. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Malawi. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-8108-5961-6. "At Chinde, East Africa, situated at the mouth of the Zambezi River, we were detained nine days by the British consul, because we were educated Afro-American missionaries" from: Williams, DeWitt (2016). Precious Memories of Missionaries of Color (Vol 2). TEACH Services, Inc. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4796-0430-2.
- ALT2:... that the Seventh-day Adventist Church replaced the African American missionary Thomas H. Branch with a white man to appease the government of the British Central Africa Protectorate? "because the Seventh-day Adventist Church wanted the mission to be viewed in a positive light by the colonial government and removal all doubts of loyalty, in 1907 the General Conference decided to send a white man, Joel C Rogers, to Nyasaland to take charge of the mission" from: Chaudhuri, Nupur; Strobel, Margaret (1992). Western Women and Imperialism: Complicity and Resistance. Indiana University Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-253-20705-0.

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/The Tolhouse

Moved to mainspace by Dumelow (talk). Self-nominated at 07:35, 15 July 2020 (UTC).[reply]

This article is new enough and long enough. The hook facts are cited inline, the article is neutral and I detected no copyright issues. I prefer ALT1 and ALT2. A QPQ has been done. @Dumelow: Please check the article carefully because in two places, I think you refer to "Booth" where you mean "Branch", and there might be others. Who is the "Dr James Hyatt Branch" who suddenly appears near the end? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:34, 25 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Cwmhiraeth, well spotted. I've fixed those two plus one in the lead, what a nightmare! With the other error it should have been "Dr James Hyatt" who lectured with the Branchs, I've clarified this. Cheers - Dumelow (talk) 06:41, 25 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. That looks better! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 08:05, 25 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Orphan

This seems to be an orphan, and I'm wondering what it could be linked from. He doesn't seem to have done very much, apart from not being liked by the British. Is being the first African American to enter colonial Malawi (which is a fact we don't have a source for) notable? Would he feature in an article on the Seven Day Adventists, or is he too marginal? 90.252.190.223 (talk) 21:49, 1 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, thanks for commenting. I've linked him from Branch (surname) now to prevent the article from being an orphan. Not sure if he should be linked from the church page, in general our coverage of missionary activity seems to be rather poor. It's not a main interest of mine, but I may eventually get around to writing a broader history article (though there might need to be one for each country). As to notability, I am happy to get some more opinions but I think he passes WP:GNG by virtue of non-trivial coverage in a number of reliable sources. I think he is moderately important to the history of Malawi (particularly early attempts to spread Ethiopianism) and as an example of African American missionary activity. Not sure what is unsourced? Shavit says he was "the first Black American in British Central Africa - Dumelow (talk) 05:48, 2 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Thomas H. Branch/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Indy beetle (talk · contribs) 05:19, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'll do this one. My initial comments:

was an African American Seventh-day Adventist missionary. Subjects are generally identified by their nationality first thing in the lede and not their ethnic group. Thus in this first sentence he should be identified as simply "American".

Removed "African" - Dumelow (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

En-route he was detained for nine days by the British consul at Chinde, Portuguese Mozambique as he was concerned that a black missionary would cause insubordination among Africans in the colony. The second instance of "he" should be changed to "the consul" so as to avoid confusion.

Done - Dumelow (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The SDA agreed to withdraw Booth and Branch after the colonial government raised concerns; Branch's replacement was a white man. Why is it worthy of mention in the lede what the skin color of his replacement was? Perhaps "Branch's replacement was more politically acceptable to the colonial administration."

Done - Dumelow (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

where he lived out his final years with his daughter Mabel. His daughter's name probably does not need mention in the lede.

Removed name - Dumelow (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Any idea what his middle name was?

I've had another look but unfortunately can't find any mention of it - Dumelow (talk) 06:49, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thomas H. Branch was born in December 24, 1856, in Jefferson County, Missouri; his parents were both slaves. Link Jefferson County, and also per WP:Global attach "United States" onto that geographic location. Not all of our readers are going to know where Jefferson County, Missouri is.

Done - Dumelow (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is it clear whether Branch himself was briefly a slave?

Checked the source and no, he was born free (is that the right term?). Amended article - Dumelow (talk) 06:33, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Branch, who was considered old for a missionary posting, had been recommended for the mission by the church's Colorado Conference Considered old by who?

Changed to more closely follow source wording - Dumelow (talk) 06:49, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The conference provided financial support to the mission, which was the church's first in the Protectorate. The "church" meaning the entire SDA?

Yep, clarified - Dumelow (talk) 06:33, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Upon arrival at Chinde Branch was detained for nine days by the British consul. Does "detained" mean he was formally arrested, or simply blocked from legally entering the protectorate?

Not sure, source just states "detained nine days by the British consul". I suspect the latter - Dumelow (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Branch picked up the local language and was well liked by his congregation What local language, Chewa? Also, I'd be hesitiant to include the claim that he was well-liked by his congregation if that claim is sourced to an SDA publication.

The source doesn't clarify. Both this and the well liked claim come from the Historical Dictionary of Malawi, but it probably doesn't add much and I am happy to remove it if desired - Dumelow (talk) 06:49, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

If it's sourced to the HD of Malawi its fine by me.

-Indy beetle (talk) 05:19, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Indy beetle, thanks so much for reviewing this, much appreciated. I've tried to address your comments above - Dumelow (talk) 06:49, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Branch moved to Watts, California as a preacher before the SDA church reluctantly approved a pension for him Any reasons given for the SDA's reluctance?

The source (Williams) says only: "He served in Watts for a short time but then took sustentation, which the new leaders from East Pennsylvania Conference were reluctant to recommend for him." I've tried to expand on this in the article - Dumelow (talk) 10:09, 11 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

~~Does the Williams source have page numbers or a chapter?~~

Looks good, I will pass the article. -Indy beetle (talk) 20:56, 11 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]