Isaac Lane, LL.D. helped form the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church(now Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) and established Lane College in Jackson, TN. Although born a slave he was permitted to learn how to read and write. In 1854 Lane received Christ and joined the Salem Methodist Church in Jackson, TN. It was there that he received his calling to the ministry. Denied a license to preach on racial grounds, he was offered an exhorter's license and begain public speaking. Lane was later named a deacon in 1866 after the Civil War. In 1870 he helped form the C.M.E. Church. He was named a bishop of the church in 1873. In 1882 Lane purchased land in Jackson on which to established one of the states few secondary schools for African Americans. In 1896, with the expansion of its college department, the school became known as Lane College. Isaac Lane Died on Dec. 6, 1937 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Jackson, TN.

Source: Curtis Jackson (Bio) and Tim Batross (Headstone) at Find-A-Grave