Born on January 3, 1950, Cannon spent her childhood in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a racially segregated community where she could not use local facilities such as the YMCA, swimming pool or library. She was the daughter of the late Esau Cannon and Corine L. Cannon, the first woman to work at the Cannon Mills in Kannapolis. Both her parents were elders in the Presbyterian Church. She had six brothers and sisters.
Education and career
Cannon graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Barber–Scotia College, followed by a Master of Divinity from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary, and master's and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York. Cannon was ordained on April 24, 1974, in Shelby, North Carolina, by the Catawba Presbytery, in the Synod of Catawba, becoming the first African-American woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian Church. Cannon began teaching at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond in 2001. She held the position of the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Social Ethics. She was the Lilly Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion at Davidson College and the Sterling Brown Visiting Professor in Religion and African American Studies at Williams College. In 2012, Cannon began serving as executive director of the Squaring the Womanist Circle Project at Union Presbyterian Seminary. Following from the research results produced by the project, Cannon worked with the administration of Union Presbyterian Seminary and several foundations to establish The Center For Womanist Leadership at Union Presbyterian Seminary. The center is the first of its kind at any theological academic institution in the United States. From 2004 to 2008, she served as president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion. Cannon received the distinguished professor award from Spelman College, the Lucy Craft Laney Award at the Black Presbyterian Bicentennial Celebration, and was a professor-scholar honoree at the National Black Church Summit at Emory University. She received the Beautiful Are The Feet Award from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. The American Academy of Religion honored Cannon with its 2011 Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2018, Cannon was honored at the Presbyterian Church 's General Assembly, receiving the Excellence in Theological Education Award. Cannon died on August 8, 2018.
Publications
God's Fierce Whimsy: The Implications of Feminism for Theological Education. Pilgrim Press, 1985
