Rachel Anna Knight, an African-American Adventist missionary, was a nurse, teacher, colporteur, Bible worker, and conference official.

Known as Anna, Knight was born in Mississippi in 1874. Her father, a white farmer, had fought as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. Her mother was an ex-slave. Knight lived with her large, extended family in a one-room cabin.

Knight couldn't attend the local school because of her race. So she learned to read and write by bartering for books with her white cousins. She would help them with their chores in exchange for lessons.

One day, an Adventist salesman came to Knight’s home. Knight acquired some Bible lessons and spent the next six months carefully comparing them to the Bible. She fell in love with Jesus and decided to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The closest church was some 400 miles away, but Knight was determined to reach it. To buy a train ticket, she sold half a bale of cotton, her share of the year's crop. There she was baptized in a creek on a cold, rainy day in late December.

A loving couple opened their home to Knight and arranged for her to attend Adventist schools. In 1898, she earned a degree in nursing from Battle Creek Sanitarium. Then she returned to Mississippi, where she started and ran a mission school.

In 1901, Dr. Kellogg, manager of Battle Creek Sanitarium, asked Knight to serve as an official delegate at that year's General Conference session, representing the self-supporting medical missionary work done by the sanitarium's graduates. While there, she accepted a call to be a missionary in India. She became the first black female missionary sent by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the first sent to India by any denomination.

Knight first worked as a nurse in India at a sanitarium in Calcutta. Then she was transferred to the mission station at Karmatar. The station operated a school, small orphanage, dispensary, and printing press. Knight taught Bible and English and tended to medical needs. She recognized that those living at the station suffered from a lack of fresh vegetables, so she taught the students how to plant a garden. Soon the school reaped a bountiful harvest.

During her six and a half years in India, Knight also became a colporteur and Bible worker and learned the Hindi language.

Sadly, she received news that the school she opened in Mississippi had burned down, so she returned to the United States to help reestablish it. She then accepted a call to Atlanta, Georgia, to serve as a Bible worker and establish medical missionary work among African-Americans in the South. She gave an average of 500 Bible readings annually, and many accepted the Adventist message.

Knight later worked for the Southeastern Union Conference and Southern Union, pioneering education work for the Black community. She was the associate secretary for the Education, Home Missionary, Missionary Volunteer, and Sabbath School departments at the Southern Union Conference. During the last year of her life, at 98, she was president of the National Colored Teachers Association.

Knight kept careful records throughout her life. In her autobiography, Mississippi Girl, she summarized her work since 1911: "I have held 9,388 meetings and have made 11,744 missionary visits," she wrote. "My work required the writing of 48,918 letters, and in getting to my appointments I have traveled 554,439 miles."

For more stories about pioneer missionaries, visit the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists at encyclopedia.adventist.org.

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Rachel “Anna” Knight was an African-American Adventist missionary nurse, teacher, colporteur, Bible worker, and conference official.

Anna was born in 1874 in Mississippi. Her father, Newton Knight, a white farmer and ex-Confederate soldier, fought in the early stages of the Civil War. Anna’s mother, Georgeanne, who had been emancipated from slavery, was of racially mixed heritage. Anna and her two sisters and brother, lived with their mother along with aunts and uncles in a small, overcrowded house.

Barred by race from attending the local school, she learned to read and write by bartering for books with her white cousins who attended school. Anna helped her cousins with their chores and, in exchange, they taught her how to read. She would go to the creek bed, smooth out the sand, and practice forming the letters of the alphabet in the sand with a stick.

Anna acquired a bundle of Seventh-day Adventist periodicals and a copy of Signs of the Times. After nearly six months of intensively studying the literature and Bible lessons, and comparing everything with the Bible, Anna wanted to be baptized and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The Adventist church nearest Anna’s home was located some 400 miles away in Tennessee, about 35 miles northeast of Chattanooga. Anna took the step of traveling on her own to Tennessee, and was baptized in a creek on a cold, rainy day in late December.

A loving couple, the Chamberses opened their home to Anna and arranged for her to attend Adventist schools.

Anna was encouraged to attend Battle Creek Sanitarium. Anna She entered the nurse’s training course and graduated as a missionary nurse in 1898.

After graduation, she returned home to Mississippi and spent the next three years opening and running a mission school.

Anna was called to Battle Creek, Michigan, by Dr. Kellogg to serve as an official delegate at the General Conference, representing the self-supporting medical missionary work done by graduates of Battle Creek Sanitarium. While in Battle Creek, Knight accepted a call to missionary service in India.

She became not only the first African-American female Seventh-day Adventist missionary sent anywhere but also the “first black woman to be sent to India by a mission board of any denomination.”4

In India, Knight began work as a nurse at a sanitarium in Calcutta. However, she was soon called to the mission station at Karmatar that, along with a school, operated a small orphanage, a dispensary, and a printing press. After recognizing a lack of fresh vegetables at the school, she drew upon her early experiences in Mississippi to teach the students how to plant a garden. Soon the school reaped a bountiful harvest unlike anything they had even seen.

Knight branched out to take on new roles as a colporteur and as Bible worker. She grew familiar with the Hindi language during her six and a half years in India.

Sadly, she received news that the school she opened in Mississippi burned down, so she went home to help reestablish it. The community at large pitched in to help rebuild.

Church leaders asked Knight to remain in America, calling her to work in Atlanta, Georgia. Her new assignment required her to operate a small sanitarium and serve as a Bible worker.

During her time in Atlanta, Knight connected with leaders in the community and lectured in the city’s black colleges about her experiences in India. In her capacity as a Bible worker, Knight gave an average of 500 Bible readings per year, with particular success during the final year at winning converts to the Adventist message.

Anna was called to church leadership in the South and served for many years in that capacity.

At more than 70 years old, she retired. Knight kept careful records, and in her autobiography, Mississippi Girl, gave a statistical summary of her work since 1911: “I have held 9,388 meetings and have made 11,744 missionary visits. My work required the writing of 48,918 letters, and in getting to my appointments I have traveled 554,439 miles.”5

Throughout an era of severe oppression and segregation in American race relations, Knight challenged the status quo by enlisting in the gospel work and serving without fear both in the American South and across the globe in India. She died on June 3, 1972 at age 98.

To read the entire story about Anna Knight and other articles, visit the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists at encyclopedia.adventist.org.