| William D. Chappelle | |
| Birth Name: | William David Chappelle |
| Birth Date: | 16 November 1857 |
| Birth Place: | Winnsboro, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Bishop, President of Allen University |
| Children: | W. D. Chappelle Jr. |
| Relatives: | William David Chappelle III (grandson) Dave Chappelle (great-grandson) |
William David Chappelle (November 16, 1857 – June 15, 1925) was an American educationalist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Chappelle served as president of Allen University, a historically Black university in Columbia, South Carolina, from 1897 to 1899 and served as the chairman of its board of trustees from 1916 to 1925.[1]
Chappelle was born enslaved in 1857 in Winnsboro, South Carolina, one of the eleven children of Henry and Patsy McCory Chappelle.[2] [3]
On March 13, 1918, Bishop Chappelle led a delegation from the bishops' council of the African Methodist Episcopal Churchto meet Democratic President Woodrow Wilson at the White House. The delegation came to protest the mounting wave of anti-black violence and hysteria accompanying the Great Migration, including numerous lynchings and other mob violence. Wilson took no action.[4]
After the death of his first wife, he married Rosina C. Palmer (also recorded as Rosena C. Palmer), who had contributed an essay as a young woman to what the Library of Congress describes as "a collection of essays by African American authors designed to encourage diligence, temperance, and religion among young African Americans."[5] [6] [7] His father-in-law was Robert John Palmer, one of South Carolina's black legislators during the Reconstruction era.[8]
One of his sons, W. D. Chappelle, Jr., was a physician and surgeon who opened the People's Infirmary around 1915, a small hospital and surgery practice in Columbia, South Carolina during a time when segregation prevented many African Americans from having access to healthcare.[9]
His great-grandson is stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle,[10] and his grandson was William David Chappelle III.[11] The former would make reference to his great-grandfather's White House visit in his 2020 special 8:46.