After attending Northwestern Normal University in Ada, Ohio, Jesse Edward Moorland enrolled in the theology department of Howard University. Moorland graduated from Howard with a master's degree in 1891 and was ordained a minister in the Congregational Church. In that year he also became secretary of the Colored Branch of the YMCA in Washington, D.C. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1893 to become pastor of Howard Church. In 1896 he became pastor of Cleveland's Mount Zion Congregational Church. He struggled to make Congregationalism a “practical, muscular Christianity” that directly addressed social needs.
Returning to the YMCA in 1898, Moorland served as administrator and fund-raiser for their Colored Men's Department in Washington, D.C. He raised over $2 million for twenty-nine new YMCA buildings for black communities throughout America. In 1914 Moorland became senior secretary of the YMCA s Colored Men s Department Under his leadership the department ...