African American philosopher and minister Richard Ishmael McKinney was born on August 8, 1906, in Live Oak, Florida. He began his formal education at a local school, the Florida Institute, co-founded by his father, George McKinney, a Baptist Minister. Due to financial difficulties, McKinney stayed home for two years after his seventh-grade year and was sent to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend school. He graduated as Valedictorian from Morehouse Academy in 1927 and then received degrees in religion and philosophy in 1931 from Morehouse College.
McKinney first attended Pendle Hill, Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and obtained both his Bachelor of Divinity in 1934 and Master of Sacred Theology degree in 1937 from Newton Theological Seminary. His thesis was entitled “The Problem of Evil and its Relation to the Ministry to an Under-privileged Minority.” McKinney received his Ph.D. degree from Yale School of Divinity in 1942. While at Yale, he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. McKinney then undertook post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the Sorbonne in Paris. He preached at the Pond Street Baptist Church for a year in Providence, Rhode Island. He and his first wife, Phyllis (Kimbrough, d.1965), had two children, U.S. Marshal George McKinney and poet Phyllis Bynum.
McKinney was an Assistant Professor, Director of Religious Activities, and Dean of the School of Religion at the HBCU, Virginia Union University, from 1943 to 1944. He then became President of Storer College, a small and now defunct HBCU in West Virginia, working there until 1950. McKinney taught at Morgan State University from 1951 until his retirement in 1978, serving as the Chair of the Department of Philosophy and the Division of the Humanities and acting Dean of the College of the Arts and Sciences. McKinney returned to Virginia Union for a short time to serve as acting Vice President for academic affairs before resuming duties at Morgan State, where he taught Philosophy well into his 90s.
Faculty in Commencement Gown, Storer College, Harpers Ferry, W. Va. President Richard McKinney(left) Unidentified faculty member (Right) Photo from the West Virginia & Regional History Center (Fair use)
McKinney’s numerous published works include Keeping The Faith: History of the First Baptist Church 1863-1980, in Light of Its Times, West Main and Seventh Streets (1981); History of the Black Baptists of Florida, 1850-1985 (1987), and a biography of Howard University‘s first African American president, Mordecai Johnson entitled, Mordecai, The Man and His Message: The Story Of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson (1998). Morgan State University established the Dr. Richard I. McKinney Philosophy Scholarship Fund in his honor.
Richard McKinney, a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, died of a heart attack on October 28, 2005, at the age of 99 in Baltimore. He left behind his wife of thirty years, Lena (Martin), and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
