Part I: Te Sanctifcation Experience Among African American Women in
Methodism
Te earliest African American women leaders tend to arise out of established Methodist circles. As the doctrine of sanctifcation became more widely taught in these groups, and experienced by individuals, the teachings spread to African American religious communities. While Wesley taught on sanctifying grace, his chosen successor John Fletcher (1729-1785) wrote on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the idea of a second work of grace. Fletcher’s writings especially infuenced other women, along with the early work of Madame Guyon (1648-1717). White women, such as Mary Bosanquent Fletcher (1739-1815), Hester Ann Roe Rogers (17561794), and Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874) broke out of traditional male roles in early Methodism, and their teachings would help pave the way for African American women to follow. While breaking down barriers of gender, class, and race were not easy, even within Methodist circles, the concept of sanctifcation provided an avenue for this to happen, which was not available in other Christian denominations.
Early image of Jarena Lee. (Image in the Public Domain)
Jarena Lee (February 11, 1783-February 3, 1864)
(African Methodist Episcopal Church)
Jarena Lee wrote Te Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel in 1836.7 Tis was the frst autobiography by an African American woman, and it speaks to her importance in understanding the religious experience of African American women.
While Jarena was born in 1783 to a free black family in Cape May, New Jersey, by the age of seven she was working as a live-in servant for a white family. Despite having no formal education, she taught herself how to write. By 1804, she had moved to Philadelphia, where she still continued in fnding work as a servant. At this time, she was exposed to the Gospel and attended religious services at Richard Allen’s African Methodist Episcopal Church.
About three months afer her conversion, Jarena records the account of her sanctifcation experience.
When I rose from my knees, there seemed a voice speaking to me, as I yet stood in a leaning posture“Ask for sanctifcation.” When to my surprise, I recollected that I had not even thought of it in my whole prayer. It would seem Satan had hidden the very object from my mind, for which I had purposely kneeled to pray. But when this voice whispered in my heart, saying, “Pray for sanctifcation,” I again bowed in the same place, at the same time, and said, “Lord sanctify my soul for Christ’s sake?” Tat very instant, as if lightning had darted through me, I sprang to my feet, and cried, “ Te Lord has sanctifed my soul!”
7 Te most easily accessed version of Jarena Lee’s autobiography is from a reprinted version found in: William L. Andrews edited 1986 book, Sisters of the Spirit: Tree Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.
Tere was none to hear this but the angels who stood around to witness my joy- and Satan, whose malice raged the more. Tat Satan was there, I knew; for no sooner had I cried out, “ Te Lord has sanctifed my soul,” than there seemed to be another voice behind me, saying, “No, it is too great a work to be done.” But another spirit said, “Bow down for the witness- I received it- thou art sanctifed!” Te frst I knew of myself afer that, I was standing in the yard with my hands spread out, and looking with my face toward heaven.
I now ran into the house and told them what had happened to me, when, as it were, a new rush of the same ecstasy came upon me, and caused me to feel as if I were in an ocean of light and bliss.8
By 1807, Jarena was feeling called to preach, but she was informed that women could not preach in the church. She wrote of this event and noted,
For as unseemly as it may appear now-a-days for a woman to preach, it should be remembered nothing is impossible with God. And why should it be thought impossible, heterodox, or improper for a woman to preach? seeing the Saviour died for the woman as well as the man.
If a man may preach, because the Saviour died for him, why not the woman? Seeing he died for her also. Is he not a whole Saviour, instead of a half one? As those who hold it wrong for a woman to preach, would seem to make it appear.
Did not Mary frst preach the risen Saviour, and is not the doctrine of the resurrection the very climax of
8 Andrews 1986: 34.
Christianity- hangs not all our hope on this, as argued by St. Paul? Ten did not Mary, a woman, preach the gospel? For she preached the resurrection of the crucifed Son of God.9
In 1811, Jarena married Joseph Lee, a preacher in the community of Snow Hill, outside of Philadelphia. Her husband also forbid her from preaching, and so she had two children and focused on her family. Afer only six years, Joseph died. Jarena asked Bishop Allen again in 1817 for a license to preach and she was again refused. In 1819, Jarena stepped into the pulpit at the Mother Bethel church in Philadelphia, when the preacher began to falter. Her preaching impacted the crowd and Bishop Allen publicly acknowledged her abilities. Unable to give her a formal license to preach, Allen named her an ofcial traveling exhorter. Jarena than began to preach all over the United States, including the South. She is credited with having travelled 2,325 miles, ofen by foot, and preaching 178 sermons during her lifetime.10 But in 1852, when the African Methodist Episcopal Church decided ofcially that women could not preach, she disappeared from ofcial church histories.
In her written account, Jarena focuses more on preaching as a woman than on her race, but in one place she noted,
…I had a call to preach at a place about thirty miles distant, among the Methodists, with whom I remained one week, and during the whole time, not a thought of my little son came into my mind; it was hid from me, lest I should have been diverted from the work I had to do, to look afer my son. Here by the instrumentality of a poor coloured woman, the Lord poured forth his spirit among the people. Tough as I
9 Andrews 1986: 36
10 Susan J. Hubert, “Testimony and Prophecy in the Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee.” Journal of Religious Tought, 54/54(2) (1998):49.
was told, there were lawyers, doctors, and magistrates present, to hear me speak, yet there was mourning and crying among sinners, for the Lord scattered fre among them of his own kindling. Te Lord gave his handmaiden power to speak for his great name, for he arrested the hearts of the people, and caused a shaking amongst the multitude, for God was in the midst.”11
Jarena mentions other women in her account, those who encouraged her, listened to her, and cared for her children when she travelled. What really comes out in her account is how the African American Church itself worked against African American women in having public ministry.
Excellent research by Frederick Knight of Morehouse College helps understand some of the trials of Jarena Lee’s fnal years.12 She died in relative poverty in Philadelphia in her 80s and indications show she struggled to survive as a “washerwoman” and through “begging”. Even the location of her remains are obscured, demonstrating some of the social problems ofen faced by African American women in American history. Nevertheless, Jarena Lee remains the author of the frst autobiography of an African American woman, and the frst female preacher of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination.
11 Andrews 1986: 45-46
12 Frederick Knight, “ Te Many Names for Jarena Lee.” Te Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 141(1) (January 2017):59-68.
Image of Zilpha Elaw. (Image in the Public Domain)
Zilpha Elaw (c. 1790-1873)
(Primitive Methodists)
Zilpha Elaw was born to a family of freed African Americans who were deeply religious. Born in Pennsylvania, she was sent to live with a Quaker family when she was about 12 years old, due to the death of her mother.13 Shortly afer her move, her father also passed away. Zilpha was not inclined toward the Quaker style of worship, and eventually began attending Methodist services. Her conversion came from a vision she had of Jesus:
As I was milking the cow and singing, I turned my head, and saw a tall fgure approaching, who came and stood by me. He had long hair, which parted in the front and came down on his shoulders; he wore a long white robe down to the feet; and as he stood with open arms and smiled upon me, he disappeared. I might have tried to imagine, or persuade myself, perhaps, that it had been a vision presented merely to the eye of my mind; but, the beast of the stall gave forth her evidence to the reality of the heavenly appearance; for she turned her head and looked round as I did; and when she saw, she bowed her knees and cowered down upon the ground. I was overwhelmed with astonishment at the sight, but the thing was certain and beyond all doubt. I write as before God and Christ, and declare, as I shall give an account to my Judge at the great day, that every thing I have written in this little book, has been written with conscientious veracity and scrupulous adherence to truth.”14
13 Te most easily accessed version of Zilpha Elaw’s autobiography is from a reprinted version found in: William L. Andrews edited 1986 book, Sisters of the Spirit: Tree Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press. 14 Andrews 1986:56-57.
In 1810, Zilpha married Joseph Elaw, who was not a committed Christian. He attempted to get Zilpha to leave the Methodists with music and dancing, but Zilpha rejected worldly pleasures. Afer moving to New Jersey, Zilpha was able to attend a camp meeting in 1817, which she described for her British readers,
In order to form a camp-meeting, when the place and time of meeting has been extensively published, each family takes its own tent and all things necessary for lodgings, with seats, provisions and servants; and with wagons and other vehicles repair to the destined spot, which is generally some wildly rural and wooded retreat in the back grounds of the interior: hundreds of families, and thousands of persons, are seen pressing to the place from all quarters; the meeting usually continues for a week or more: a large circular enclosure of brushwood is formed; immediately inside of which the tents are pitched, and the space at the centre is appropriated to the worship of God, the minister’s stand being on one side, and generally on a somewhat rising ground. It is a scafold constructed of boards, and surrounded with a fence of rails.
In the space before the platform, seats are placed sufcient to seat four or fve thousand persons; and at night the woods are illuminated; there are generally four large mounds of earth constructed, and on them large piles of pine knots are collected and ignited, which make a wonderful blaze and burn a long time; there are also candles and lamps hung about in the trees, together with a light in every tent, and the minister’s stand is brilliantly lighted up; so that the illumination attendant upon a camp-meeting, is a magnifcently solemn scene. Te worship commences in the morning before sunrise; the watchmen proceed round the enclosure, blowing with trumpets to awaken every inhabitant of this City of the Lord;
then they proceed again round the camp, to summon the inmates of every tent to their family devotions; afer which they partake of breakfast, and are again summoned by sound of trumpet to public prayer meeting at the altar which is placed in front of the preaching stand.15
Zilpah goes on to describe more detail of a camp meeting, but more importantly, she notes her sanctifcation experience occurred at such a meeting,
I, for one, have great reason to thank God for the refreshing seasons of his mighty grace, which have accompanied these great meetings of his saints in the wilderness. It was at one of these meetings that God was pleased to separate my soul unto Himself, to sanctify me as a vessel designed for honour, made meet for the master’s use. Whether I was in the body, or whether I was out of the body, on that auspicious day, I cannot say; but this I do know, that at the conclusion of a most powerful sermon delivered by one of the ministers from the platform, and while the congregation were in prayer, I became so overpowered with the presence of God, that I sank down upon the ground, and laid there for a considerable time; and while I was thus prostrate on the earth, my spirit seemed to ascend up into the clear circle of the sun’s disc; and, surrounded and engulphed in the glorious efulgence of his rays, I distinctly heard a voice speak unto me, which said, “Now thou art sanctifed; and I will show thee what thou must do.” I saw no personal appearance while in this stupendous elevation, but I discerned bodies of resplendent light; nor did I appear to be in this world at all, but immediately far above those spreading trees, beneath whose shady and verdant bowers I
15 Andrews 1986:64-65.
Early Engraving of an African American Camp Meeting. (Image in the Public Domain)
was then reclined. When I recovered from the trance or ecstasy into which I had fallen, the frst thing I observed was, that hundreds of persons were standing around me weeping; and I clearly saw by the light of the Holy Ghost, that my heart and soul were rendered completely spotless- as clean as a sheet of white paper, and I felt as pure as if I had never sinned in all my life…16
It was afer this experience that Zilpha began to pray in public and speak to individuals more about salvation. When her sister was dying, Zilpha was called to her bedside and her sister had a vision of Jesus with the message to Zilpha to preach the gospel. Even then, Zilpha had doubts, writing, “I could not at the time imagine it possible that God should select and appoint so poor and ignorant a creature as myself to be his messenger, to bear the good tidings of the gospel to the children of men.”17 But afer a serious illness and a personal confrmation of her call, Zilpha attended another camp meeting, where in the power of the Holy Spirit, Zilpha began preaching. In 1823, Zilpha’s husband died afer a deathbed repentance. With the help of some Quakers, she opened a school to teach African American children. She noted some of the issues of race when she wrote,
Te pride of a white skin is a bauble of great value with many in some parts of the United States, who readily sacrifce their intelligence to their prejudices, and possess more knowledge than wisdom. Te Almighty accounts not the black races of man either in order of nature or spiritual capacity as inferior to the white; for He bestows his Holy Spirit on, and dwells in them as readily as in persons of whiter complexion: the Ethiopian eunuch was adopted as a son and heir of
16 Andrews 1986: 66-67.
17 Andrews 1986: 75.
God; and when Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto him [Ps. 68:31], their submission and worship will be graciously accepted. Tis prejudice was far less prevalent in that part of the country where I resided in my infancy; for when a child, I was not prohibited from any school on account of the colour of my skin. Oh! Tat men would outgrow their nursery prejudices and learn that “God hath made of one blood all the nations of men that dwell upon all the face on the earth.” Acts 17:26.18
Zilpha continued to preach, travelling to New York and even down into the slave states, with the knowledge that she could have been arrested and sold into slavery, just because of the color of her skin. She continued preaching in Virginia, and noted the astonishment which greeted her as a black woman preacher. She then preached extensively in New England among camp meetings and in pulpits with African American and white audiences. She spoke in Boston, Lynn, New York, Nantucket, and even in Bangor, Portland, and Bath, Maine.
In 1840, Zilpha lef the United States for England. Tere she spent at least four years preaching in many places, and ofen among the Primitive Methodists. Zilpha would ultimately publish an account of her life while she was living in England. Te work was titled, Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw, an American Female of Colour; Together with Some Account of the Great Religious Revivals in America and was published in 1846.
It is not clear if Zilpha returned to the United States, but evidence seems to show she married Ralph Bressey Shum in East London in 1850. It is believed that she continued preaching until
18 Andrews 1986:85-86.
her death. Registers show she was buried in 1873 in Tower Hamlets Cemetery in London, England.
Photo of Julia Foote. (Image in the Public Domain)
Julia Foote (May 21, 1823-November 1901) (African Methodist Episcopal Zion)
Julia Foote was born to former slaves in 1823.19 Her father had been born free, but was stolen and enslaved. He ended up working as a teamster moving goods by horse and wagon. Julia’s mother had been born a slave in New York and had been viciously whipped by an owner who had wanted her to submit to him, and she had told the wife. She was then sold to various owners. Julia’s father had purchased his own freedom and then that of his wife and his oldest child. Julia was the fourth child and was born free. Julia’s family was religious and belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, which kept African Americans in one area in the balcony and required them to take communion afer white members. As Julia recounted,
One day my mother and another colored sister waited until all the white people had, as they thought, been served, when they started for the communion table. Just as they reached the lower door, two of the poorer class of white folks arose to go to the table. At this, a mother in Israel caught hold of my mother’s dress and said to her, “Don’t you know better than to go to the table when white folks are there?” Ah! She did know better than to do such a thing purposely. Tis was one of the fruits of slavery. Although professing to love the same God, members of the same church, and expecting to fnd the same heaven at last, they could not partake of the Lord’s Supper until the lowest of the whites had been served. Were they led by the Holy Spirit? Who shall say? Te Spirit of Truth can never be mistaken, nor can he inspire anything unholy. How many at the present day profess great spirituality, and
19 A free download of Julia Foote’s book, A Brand Plucked From the Fire: An Autobiographical Sketch, 2019 Wilmore, KY: First Fruits Press can be found at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/frstfruitsheritagematerial/169/
even holiness, and yet are deluded by a spirit of error, which leads them to say to the poor and colored ones among them, “Stand back a little- I am holier than thou.”20
Julia began the process of learning to read from her father. No one else in the family could read, and he had very limited knowledge, although he would read from the Bible by spelling out words. So, he taught her the alphabet. At ten, Julia was sent to live in the country, and she was able to go to school. At about twelve years old, Julia returned to her family to help care for younger children and the family moved to Albany and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Tis led to her conversion at 15 years of age. Also, around this time, a childhood accident led to Julia losing her sight in one eye. Julia entered a period of misery and did not understand how to break through this feeling. Finally, she heard an older couple speak about sanctifcation, and through speaking with the couple who showed her various scriptures, Julia had a sanctifcation experience. Julia wrote,
Te second day afer that pilgrim’s visit, while waiting on the Lord, my desire was granted, through faith in my precious Saviour. Te glory of God seemed almost to prostrate me to the foor. Tere was, indeed, a weight of glory resting upon me. I said with all my heart, “ Tis is the way I long have sought, and mourned because I found it not.” Glory to the Father! Glory to the Son! And glory to the Holy Ghost! Who hath plucked me as a brand from the burning, and sealed me unto eternal life. I no longer hoped for glory, but I had the full assurance of it.21
20 Foote 2019 reprint: 11-12.
21 Foote 2019 reprint: 43.
At 16, Julia married George Tillman and the young couple moved to Boston. As her ministry and outreach continued, especially while her husband was a sailor on extended trips, Julia experienced a vision telling her to preach,
I took all my doubts and fear to the Lord in prayer, when, what seemed to be an angel, made his appearance. In his hand was a scroll, on which were these words: “ Tee have I chosen to preach my Gospel without delay.” Te moment my eyes saw it, it appeared to be printed on my heart. Te angel was gone in an instant, and I, in agony, cried out, “Lord, I cannot do it!” It was eleven o’clock in the morning, yet everything grew dark as night. Te darkness was so great that I feared to stir.22
Julia makes clear in her account that until this command, she was opposed to women preaching in the church. She was aware of the difculties that would need to be overcome and the opposition she would face, even from her husband and family. Two months afer the frst visit she experienced a second angelic appearance directing her “to go in my name and warn the people of their sins,”23 and this time she submitted to God’s will, but before long fear took hold of her again. Afer a short time, she had a third encounter, …while engaged in fervent prayer, the same supernatural presence came to me once more and took me by the hand. At that moment I became lost to everything in this world. Te angel led me to a place where there was a large tree, the branches of which seemed to extend either way beyond sight. Beneath it sat, as I thought, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, besides many others, whom I thought were angels. I was led before them: they looked me
22 Foote 2019 reprint: 66.
23 Foote 2019 reprint: 68.
over from head to foot, but said nothing. Finally, the Father said to me: “Before these people make your choice, whether you will obey me or go from this place to eternal misery and pain.” I answered not a word. He then took me by the hand to lead me, as I thought, to hell, when I cried out, “I will obey thee, Lord!” He then pointed my hand in diferent directions, and asked if I would go there. I replied, “Yes, Lord.” He then led me, all the others following, till he came to a place where there was a great quantity of water, which looked like silver, where we made a halt. My hand was given to Christ, who led me into the water and stripped me of my clothing, which at once vanished from sight. Christ then appeared to wash me, the water feeling quite warm.
During this operation, all the others stood on the bank, looking on in profound silence. When the washing was ended, the sweetest music I had ever heard greeted my ears. We walked to the shore, where an angel stood with a clean, white robe, which the Father at once put on me. In an instant I appeared to be changed into an angel. Te whole company looked at me with delight, and began to make a noise which I called shouting. We all marched back with music. When we reached the tree to which the angel frst led me, it hung full of fruit, which I had not seen before. Te Holy Ghost plucked some and gave me, and the rest helped themselves. We sat down and ate the fruit, which had a taste like nothing I had ever tasted before. When we had fnished, we all arose and gave another shout. Ten God the Father said to me: “You are now prepared, and must go where I have commanded you.” I replied, “If I go, they will not believe me.” Christ then appeared to write something with a golden pen and golden ink upon golden paper. Ten he rolled it up, and said to me: “Put this in your bosom, and
wherever you go, show it, and they will know that I have sent you to proclaim salvation to all.” He then put it into my bosom, and they all went with me to a bright, shining gate, singing and shouting. Here they embraced me, and I found myself once more on earth.24
Julia commenced her work at this time, even though she immediately began to face opposition from within the African Methodist Episcopal Church of which she was a member. Her membership from the church was revoked because of her refusal to stop preaching. She appealed to the Conference, but recorded, “My letter was slightingly noticed, and then thrown under the table. Why should they notice it? It was only the grievance of a woman, and there was not justice meted out to women in those days. Even ministers of Christ did not feel that women had any rights which they were bound to respect.”25 In response to those who spoke against women preaching, Julia responded, “We are sometimes told that if a woman pretends to a Divine call, and thereon grounds the right to plead the cause of a crucifed Redeemer in public, she will be believed when she shows credentials from heaven; that is, when she works a miracle. If it be necessary to prove one’s right to preach the Gospel, I ask my brethren to show me their credentials, or I can not believe in the propriety of their ministry.”26
In her attendance of the Conference in Philadelphia, Julia also met “three sisters” who also felt called to preach, but had been denied, and so the four of them set up a meeting in Philadelphia right afer the Conference. Te women (one lef them for fear of being removed from the church) ran the meetings and closed with a love-feast, which created some controversy. From there she
24 Foote 2019 reprint: 69-71.
25 Foote 2019 reprint: 76.
26 Foote 2019 reprint: 78-79.
returned to her family in New York and spoke frequently in houses, but was ofen denied the right to speak in churches. She also faced opposition, especially in travelling because of the color of her skin. In one case she noted while going by boat from New York to Boston, the boat was delayed due to technical problems and she had to sit on deck and caught a severe cold because African Americans were not allowed in the sheltered cabin unless they were servants. In yet another case she noted that she was delayed for four days on a trip by stage coach, despite having paid for a ticket, because African Americans could not travel on a coach if any of the white passengers objected.
While speaking and traveling in Ohio, Julia received word of her husband’s death while he was at sea. She continued travelling and speaking, and in one case was invited to speak in Baltimore at an African Methodist Episcopal Church. Since this was about 1849 and Maryland was a slave state, Julia noted,
Upon our arrival there we were closely questioned as to our freedom, and carefully examined for marks on our person by which to identify us if we should prove to be runaways. While there, a daughter of the lady with whom we boarded ran away from her self-styled master. He came, with others, to her mother’s house at midnight, burst in the door without ceremony, and swore the girl was hid in the house, and that he would have her, dead or alive. Tey repeated this for several nights. Tey ofen came to our bed and held their light in our faces, to see if the one for whom they were looking was not with us. Te mother was, of course, in great distress. I believe they never recovered the girl. Tank the dear Lord we do not have to sufer such indignities now, though the monster, Slavery, is not yet dead in all its forms.27
27 Foote 2019 reprint: 98-99.
In another case, Julia refused to speak to a group of white Methodists who would not permit African Americans to attend, and this attitude in turn led to a white Methodist congregation in Zanesville, Ohio opening their church to African Americans for the frst time in 1851.
Julia published an account of her life in 1879, entitled A Brand Plucked From the Fire: An Autobiographical Sketch. In one chapter, she specifcally addressed women when she wrote, Sisters, shall not you and I unite with the heavenly host in the grand chorus? If so, you will not let what man may say or do, keep you from doing the will of the Lord or using the gifs you have for the good of others. How much easier to bear the reproach of men than to live at a distance from God. Be not kept in bondage by those who say, “We sufer not a woman to teach,” thus quoting Paul’s words [1 Cor. 14:34], but not rightly applying them. What though we are called to pass through deep waters, so our anchor is cast within the veil, both sure and steadfast? Blessed experience! I have had to weep because this was not my constant experience. At times, a cloud of heaviness has covered my mind, and disobedience has caused me to lose the clear witness of perfect love… Not till the day of Pentecost did Christ’s chosen ones see clearly, or have their understandings opened; and nothing short of a full baptism of the Spirit will dispel our unbelief. Without this, we are but babes- all our lives are ofen carried away by our carnal natures and kept in bondage; whereas, if we are wholly saved and live under the full sanctifying infuence of the Holy Ghost, we cannot be tossed about with every wind, but like an iron pillar or a house built upon a rock prove immovable. Our minds will then be fully illuminated,
our hearts purifed, and our souls flled with the pure love of God, bringing forth fruit to his glory.28
In this same vein, the point and purpose of Julia Foote’s writing was to teach and point others toward the sanctifcation experience, and her book should be read in that light.
In 1894, Julia Foote became the frst ordained woman deacon of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and in 1900 she was the second woman named an elder. She died in 1901 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the family plot of Bishop Alexander Walters in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.
28 Foote 2019 reprint: 112-116.
Photo of Amanda Smith. (Image in the Public Domain)
Amanda Smith (January 23, 1837-February 25, 1915)
(Methodist Episcopal Church)
Amanda Smith was born in Long Green, Maryland on January 23, 1837 to Samuel and Mariam Matthews Berry.29 She was born in slavery to parents who were owned by diferent slaveholders on adjoining farms. Amanda’s father was allowed to make extra money with an aim to buying his freedom. So, at nights and in his free time, he would make things to sell and work additional time during periods of harvest, sometime working till one or two in the morning. Afer buying his own freedom, he set to work to buy the freedom of his wife and children, fve of who were born into slavery (the family ended up with thirteen children in total). Amanda was the oldest girl in the family.
Amanda’s mother had attended a Methodist Camp Meeting with her young mistress, who went with some friends out of curiosity. Te young white lady became saved and desired to go to other services, but her family prevented it. Amanda’s mother and grandmother provided some of her little contact with others convinced of the message of sanctifcation. Te young lady developed typhoid fever, and on her death-bed repeatedly asked her parents to free Amanda’s mother and siblings. Amanda noted that when her father paid for their freedom, she had been too young to experience the real trials of slavery, but she also wrote, “I ofen say to people that I have a right to shout more than some folks; I
29 A reprint of the account of Amanda Smith can be found for free: Mrs. Amanda Smith, An Autobiography: Te Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist: Containing an Account of her Life Work of Faith, and Her Travels in America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa, as an Independent Missionary. Chicago, IL: Meyer and Brother, 1893. Free electronic access at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ frstfruitsheritagematerial/139/
have been bought twice, and set free twice, and so I feel I have a good right to shout. Hallelujah!”30
Afer the family was free, Amanda’s father wished to visit a brother up north who had run away years before. Maryland law at the time held that even free blacks who lef the state for ten days would be considered no longer a resident and could be captured and sold. Amanda’s father took more than ten days for the visit, and so the family felt forced from fear to leave Maryland, while her mother’s family remained enslaved. Both Amanda’s mother and father had learned to read, and so she was sent to a small school in Pennsylvania, where she was educated, although her education was sporadic.
At thirteen, while living and working in the house of a Mrs. Latimer, Amanda Smith was saved in a revival held in a local white Methodist church. She still battled with lots of spiritual doubts and also due to the impact of prejudice. At the same time, her father’s house was an active station on the Underground Railroad and they were involved in helping slaves escaping from the South. Amanda recounts a number of the close calls they had in being caught by white slave catchers at the time and her parents’ bravery in helping runaway slaves escape capture.
In 1854, Amanda married C. Devine, her frst husband. Tey had one child who died, and a daughter, Maze, who lived in Baltimore. Amanda became very ill in 1855 and was considered close to death, when she had a vision,
I saw on the foot of my bed a most beautiful angel. It stood on one foot with wings spread, looking me in the face and motioning me with the hand; it said “Go back,” three times, “Go back, Go back, Go back.”
30 Smith 1893: 22.
Ten, it seemed, I went to a great Camp Meeting and there seemed to be thousands of people, and I was to preach and the platform I had to stand on was high above the people. It seemed it was erected between two trees, but near the tops. How I got on it I don’t know, but I was on this platform with a large Bible opened and I was preaching from these words:- “And I if I be lifed up will draw all men unto me.” O, how I preached, and the people were slain right and lef. I suppose I was in this vision about two hours.31
When Amanda came out of the vision her sickness began to pass and she recommitted herself to living a Christian life. But she continued to be plagued by doubts about her salvation, and she entered into a major time of prayer and trying to struggle against the voice of the Devil laying out her doubts. Finally, in 1856, she noted afer a third struggle in prayer:
Ten in my desperation I looked up and said, “O, Lord, if Tou wilt help me I will believe Tee,” and in the act of telling God I would, I did. O, the peace and joy that fooded my soul! Te burden rolled away; I felt it when it lef me, and a food of light and joy swept through my soul such as I had never known before. I said, “Why, Lord, I do believe this is just what I have been asking for,” and down came another food of light and peace. And I said again, “Why, Lord, I do believe this is what I have asked Tee for.” Ten I sprang to my feet, all around me was light. I was new. I looked at my hands, they looked new; I took hold of myself and said, “Why, I am new, I am new all over.” I clapped my hands: I ran out of the cellar, I walked up and down the kitchen foor. Praise the Lord! Tere seemed to be a halo of light all over me; the change was so real and so thorough that I have ofen said that
31 Smith 1893: 42-43.
if I had been as black as ink or as green as grass or as white as snow, I would not have been frightened.32
In the early 1860’s during the Civil War, Amanda’s husband enlisted with the army and went South to fght, and never returned. So, afer a few years of domestic service in Philadelphia, Amanda married James Smith, a local preacher for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. During the years she did not have a husband, she was in domestic service and had to board her young daughter in other houses. Tis was part of her decision to marry again, but the marriage immediately encountered problems, as Smith was not given an appointment and Amanda had to return to domestic service as a cook and washerwoman. To make matters worse, the couple’s newborn daughter passed away. In 1865 the couple moved to New York, and while things did not improve, Amanda did frst hear of the idea of sanctifcation.
During her time in New York, another baby died, and she became reduced to the status of a washerwoman, taking in laundry, while her husband struggled with a poor-paying job in a hotel. When things were at their lowest in 1868, Amanda heard a voice from God telling her to go to the Green Street Church and hear John Inskip. Despite temptations to go to other churches and sheer exhaustion from her work, Amanda made it to the Green Street Church and sat close to the door, as she was the only African American in the white church. Inskip preached on the teaching of sanctifcation. While Amanda felt the experience of sanctifcation, she resisted the urge to shout out in the white congregation, and so she began doubting her experience. As she wrote later,
Somehow I always had a fear of white people- that is, I was not afraid of them in the sense of them doing me harm, or anything of that kind- but a kind of fear
32 Smith 1893: 47.
because they were white, and were there, and I was black and was here! But that morning on Green street, as I stood on my feet trembling, I heard these words distinctly. Tey seemed to come from the northeast corner of the church, slowly, but clearly: “ Tere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) I never understood that text before. But now the Holy Ghost had made it clear to me. And as I looked at white people that I had always seemed afraid of, now they looked so small. Te great mountain had become a mole-hill.33
James Smith died shortly afer in 1869, leaving Amanda as a widow again. By November of 1869, Amanda was doing extensive work among the African American community, especially in New York and New Jersey.
In commenting on if she had ever wished she were white, Amanda Smith wrote:
No, we who are the royal black are very well satisfed with His gif to us in this substantial color. I, for one, praise Him for what He has given me, although at times it is very inconvenient. For example: When on my way to California last January, a year ago, if I had been white I could have stopped at a hotel, but being black, though a lone woman, I was obliged to stay all night in the waiting room at Austin, Texas, though I arrived at ten P.M.: and many times when in Philadelphia, or New York, or Baltimore, or almost anywhere else except in grand historic Boston, I could not go in and have a cup of tea or a dinner at a hotel or restaurant. Tere may be places in these cities where colored people may be accommodated, but generally they are proscribed, and that sometimes makes it very
33 Smith 1893: 80.
inconvenient. I could pay the price- yes, that is all right; I know how to behave- yes, that is all right; I may have on my very best dress so that I look elegantyes, that is all right; I am known as a Christian ladyyes, that is all right; I will occupy but one chair; I will touch no person’s plate or fork- yes, that is all right; but you are black! Now, to say that being black did not make it inconvenient for us ofen, would not be true; but belonging to royal stock, as we do, we propose braving this inconvenience for the present, and pass on into the great big future where all these little things will be lost because of their absolute smallness! May the Lord send the future to meet us! Amen.34
By 1870, Amanda Smith indicates she once again received a call to preach. She had attended many camp meetings, including a number of the Holiness camp meetings, her frst being in Oakington, Maryland in 1870. She followed up by attending the camp meeting at Sing Sing in New York, Round Lake, Kennebunk, and Wesley Grove on Martha’s Vineyard. Each time she was able to share her story and become more and more comfortable sharing with white people. She also became more open to following the leading of the Holy Spirit. She encountered both prejudice, but also great acceptance, among the Holiness people in these meetings.
Amanda Smith managed to attend some of Phoebe Palmer’s Tuesday meetings, as well as hearing Sarah Smiley speak, both important Holiness fgures. She also became friends with Hannah Whitall Smith and attended her meetings as well. Ofen, she recounts a great deal of fear about how she would be received, and she did encounter negative remarks from some due to her race, but she was ofen welcomed by the speakers themselves and encouraged ofen to sing at these meetings as well.
34 Smith 1893: 117-118.
(Image courtesy of the Church of the Nazarene Archives.)
Iowa with White Leaders of the Christian Holiness Association.
Amanda Smith at a Camp Meeting in
When there was to be a national camp meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Holiness leaders were concerned about her attending in the South. As she was struggling with determining if she should go, she wrote,
Just as I went to get up from my knees, a suggestion like this came:
“You know the Kuklux are down there, and they might kill you.”
Ten I knelt down again, and thought it all over; and I said, “Lord, if being a martyr for Tee would glorify Tee, all right; but then, just to go down there and be butchered by wicked men for their own gratifcation, without any reference to Ty glory, I’m not willing. And now, Lord, help me. If Tou dost want me to do this, even then, give me the grace and enable me to do it.
Ten these words came: “My grace is sufcient for thee.” And I said, “All right,” and got up.35
Along with this request, Amanda had told God she needed an almost impossible $50.00 to go, and by the end of the week, someone had given her $50.00 without even knowing of her prayer. She went on to be a part of the camp meeting in Knoxville, even in the presence of racial prejudice.
While she had thought about mission to Africa earlier in her life, she felt that the best she could do would be to raise her surviving daughter to be a missionary someday. In July of 1878, Amanda lef for England for three months, but God revealed she was to stay longer. She spoke at the Keswick Convention and went to the Broadlands Conference with Lord and Lady Mount Temple.
35 Smith 1893: 207.
She was invited to Scotland. On a trip to Eastbourne in England, Mrs. Charles Boardman wrote to Amanda telling her that Lucy Drake was returning to India and would like to see her. Lucy Drake was a pioneering Holiness missionary to India who went to work in Bassim supported by Dr. Cullis of Boston. Lucy Drake told Amanda that she felt God was calling Amanda to India and she had already raised the money. Amanda was able to travel to India through Paris, Italy, and Egypt. She saw wonders of the world from Rome to the pyramids of Giza, which she never imagined a slave girl from America would ever have a chance to see.
In November of 1879, Amanda arrived in India in the city of Bombay, where Jennie Frow showed her around before returning to her work. Jennie Frow would become Jennie Fuller, a major missionary fgure for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in India. Amanda Smith travelled around India and Burma, recording a good description of early Holiness mission work there, and she sang and spoke in the various places she visited. Amanda returned to England in June of 1881.
Te following year, in January of 1882, Amanda set sail again, but this time to Africa. Afer a stop in the Canary Islands, she arrived in Sierra Leone and travelled on to Liberia. Here she spent time with B.Y. Paine, his sister, Patsy Paine and her family, early African American missionaries to Liberia. In addition, she visited mission work and spoke at meetings. She also travelled to Cape Palmas in Liberia with the well-known Holiness Methodist missionary bishop, William Taylor. She remained in this area, speaking and teaching for eight years, and her autobiography contains a wonderful account of the life and culture among the people of Liberia in its early history. Amanda lef Sierra Leone in November of 1890. It had been twelve years since she had lef the United States for a three-month trip to England.
On her return to the United States, Amanda Smith published her autobiography in 1893, entitled An Autobiography, Te Story of the Lord’s Dealing with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist Containing an Account of her Life, Work of Faith, and Her Travels in America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa, as An Independent Missionary. She continued preaching and speaking, and with the proceeds of her book and gifs from friends in 1899, she opened the Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children in a suburb of Chicago. Due to various problems the home closed its doors in 1918, two years afer Amanda Smith passed away on February 24, 1915.
Part II: Te Experience of African American Women in Holiness Groups
As the teachings on sanctifcation and holiness began to take root within Methodist circles, opposition began to arise, especially from those with administrative or ecclesiastical authority. In the face of this opposition, many Holiness people took up the position as “Come Outers”, a movement which encouraged truly holy people to leave and remove themselves from existing denominations which were considered defled by sin and teaching doctrines contrary to scripture. Groups began to form, which became denominations: the Free Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Church, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Church of God (Anderson) and other smaller groups such as the United Holy Church of America and Christ Holy Sanctifed Church, which were African American groups. On the most radical edge was the Metropolitan Church Association.
While there were Holiness people who remained within their denominations, especially in Methodist groups, it was not uncommon for some sanctifed people to be forced out of their denominational homes, especially among the Baptists. African American women were a part of all of these various movements. Some like Roxy Turner, Emma Elizabeth Craig, and Sarah King were involved in forming their own independent organizations, some of which would later become Pentecostal. Others, such as Emma Ray, Susan Fogg, Eliza Suggs, Priscilla Wimbush, and Irene Blyden Taylor were part of white Holiness organizations, and they sought to work within the boundaries of these groups. However, the message of sanctifcation continued to provide them an exceptional access to leadership and ministry within these organizations despite gender and race.
Engraving of Roxy Turner, her son Rolly, and her frst church in Lexington, Kentucky: Te Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1896.
(Image in the Public Domain)
Roxy Turner (1851?- February 24, 1901)
(Independent Holiness- The Power Churches)
Roxy Turner was born a slave in Kentucky, possibly between 1851 and 1862.36 Almost nothing is known about her early life, although from her own accounts she never received any formal education and could not read or write. She married in 1876 to a farmhand named James Turner and had three sons. According to the accounts, Roxy took in washing to help supplement her husband’s wages, while the family lived in rental houses in Lexington, Kentucky, in African-American neighborhoods. At the time of her death, they were living in a two-room cottage on Race Street.
Around 1890, Roxy began to hold prayer meetings in her house and in the houses of neighbors and by 1891 they had formed a group called the Christian Faith Band in the African American community of Goodloetown in Lexington. Roxy’s principal teaching was on the “seven powers” and so her group became known locally as the “Power Churches,” “Power Society,” or “Power Band.” By 1894 a second band had been formed. An early description of their services was noted in 1895,
No regular pastors are employed, the exercises being participated in by the members, as the spirit moves them. Tese talks are indulged in by both male and female. Te talks are mostly in the shape of giving experiences, and the exhortation of others to greater piety. Te frst congregation soon had over a hundred members and the second now has a numerous membership.37
36 Much of this work is original research by the author which will be part of an upcoming article which will go into more depth.
37 “ Te ‘Power Church.’ Or Christian Faith Colored Organization.” Lexington Herald-Leader March 8, 1895: 6.
Before long, various congregations of the Power Churches began to appear around Central Kentucky. While there are few descriptions of her services, one reporter wrote,
Services opened with a weird hymn, followed by a prayer. With a rhythmic cadence that was not without its infuence on the listeners, a spare, ink black old woman with the strange, wrinkled face of a fetish woman, in a cracked voice, began her prayer. All of the elect fell on their knees, with bodies swaying, and with groans and exclamations of “Oh-h-h-h-h Lord!” and “Praise to His name!” kept up a sort of humming accompaniment to the voice of the old woman.
Prayer was followed by hymn and hymn by prayer for half or three-quarters of an hour. Ten Robert Smith, the regular minister of the church, announced that there would be a short ‘experience meeting’. “I want all that love the Lord to get up and testify. Make it short, say what you have got to say and say it quick or we will have to cut you of,” he said.
Te “experience” meeting evidently appealed to those in the church. In all parts of the house the negroes rose up, with eyes fashing, faces shining, and, with rude wild gestures, would shout a few words, such as “I’m a servant of the Lord, called from on high; I ain’t ashamed to tell it, and am going to heaven when I die, and wouldn’t take nothing for my journey.”
“Sister Roxy” Turner then ascended the altar for a short sermon, selecting a text from Revelations, she preached the awful day of the Lord’s judgement. Shouting at the top of her voice, leaning out over the railing and pounding her words into the listeners with her great arm, “Roxy” painted a picture of hell that many of the unregenerate could not stand, leaving
the church interior rather than stay and listen. Shriek afer shriek went up from the sanctifed- they were feeling the power- a wild clamor rang through the church, and when the priestess sank exhausted to her seat mourners were weeping on every bench.38
When asked to describe her teachings of the “seven powers,” Roxy responded:
Tere are seven powers. First there is the high power, or Holy Ghost. In order to get this power one must be converted and pray fervently for a long time, until they are purged of every sin. Second, there is the healing power, which enables the possessor to heal the sick. Any one possessing the second power can go to your bed when you are dying and restore you to perfect health. Tird, we have the overcoming power. Tis power enables you to overcome sin. You may desire to indulge in the follies of the world ever so much, but when once endowed with the overcoming power you are able to turn away. Fourth, there is the standing power. Tis consists of the ability to withstand temptation. Te scorn of the world and the rebukes of your enemies have no efect upon you when you have the standing power. Fifh is the enduring power, which enables one to stand any hardship without physical injury. No matter how cold it is, anyone possessing this power cannot be frozen. Te sixth power is the controlling power, by which dangers can be avoided and happenings prevented. Te seventh, or last, power enables one to commune with the dead. A member possessing this power can go into the grave-yard, out yonder, and talk with friends who have departed this
38 “Roxy Head of a Strange Kentucky Sect in as Ebony Priestess: How She Sways Her Followers and Conducts a Strange Weird Service.” St. Louis Dispatch, December 23, 1900: 43. Tis article was reprinted in 1901 in Te Boston Globe.
life years ago. Yes, I have the healing power, and all the others except the seventh, which I intend to get in a few weeks.39
While not entirely orthodox, Roxy’s teachings have clear markers of the Holiness Movement with a second empowerment of the Spirit following conversion, an acceptance of divine healing, and teachings of sanctifcation which allow a believer to be free from sin in their life.
Beyond this, Roxy claimed that through the power of the Holy Spirit she was given the ability to read scripture. Accounts describe Roxy as “an unusually large woman, tipping the beam at 365 pounds and standing six feet two inches in her stockings.”40 But she is also recorded as,
“Roxy” Turner, the ebony priestess of this strange sect, is a rather squat, fat, ordinary negro woman, not more than 5 feet 4 inches in height, weighing nearly 300 pounds. She does not know her age. “Roxy” received no education, or says she received none, and claims to have obtained the power of reading afer she “saw the face of the Lord and got the power from the Most High.”41
39 “Sister Roxy’s Society. Religious Society Founded by a Negro Woman. A Worship Tat is Peculiar and a Faith Tat Inspires- Te Power Defned.” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, October 4, 1896: 6.
40 “Strange ‘Power’ Church”. Te Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1896: 18.
41 “Roxy Head of a Strange Kentucky Sect in as Ebony Priestess: How She Sways Her Followers and Conducts a Strange Weird Service.” St. Louis Dispatch, December 23, 1900: 43. Note, many of these articles are written using dialect. Since this was ofen a method to disparage or belittle African Americans for a lack of education, I have chosen to quote from these articles, but not use the dialect form they chose, but put the words into proper English.
Engraving of Roxy Turner, preaching and healing: Te St. Louis DispatchDecember 23, 1900.
(Image in the Public Domain)
By 1900, the Power Churches numbered about 25 to 30 congregations spread across Central Kentucky. Roxy claimed these were all connected to one central church with the rest being local bands. One of her obituaries recorded,
Roxy Turner was a woman of unusually vigorous intellect for an uneducated woman and expressed herself eloquently, sometimes picturesquely, and through her infuence the “Power Church” wielded a great infuence among certain Negroes. She was exceedingly pious and it is said by her acquaintances that she lived an eminently correct life. Her belief and doctrine was, substantially stated, that she was imbued with especial “power” from God to bless, to foresee, to alleviate pain, in some instances where the belief of the suferer was great enough, and that she herself enjoyed special divine privileges in the working out of the Lord’s will concerning her people, and could call down “power” from on high to help her in her work.42
Several accounts also mention that Roxy was the only “colored woman” to hold a preaching license in the state of Kentucky at the time. But Roxy’s work was not limited to African Americans. A powerful account of her healing a white woman, Mrs. Frank Cox, was widely published, and white people would attend services in Power Churches. Roxy herself indicated that, “white folks come to my meetings everywhere I go. Just two or three, not many except at Harrodsburg, and they come to the meeting and give their experience just the same as us, and sometimes get up and exhorts some too.”43
42 “Roxey Turner, Founder of the Famous ‘Power Church’ is Dead. A Peculiar Belief.” Lexington Herald-Leader, February 26, 1901: 8.
43 “Roxy Head of a Strange Kentucky Sect in as Ebony Priestess: How She Sways Her Followers and Conducts a Strange Weird Service.” St. Louis Dispatch, December 23, 1900: 43.
Roxy Turner died on February 24, 1901 from a case of infuenza. Some recent accounts seem to label this the “Spanish fu” but this was a number of years before the Spanish fu epidemic of 1918. Accounts of her death were even reported in Cincinnati and Atlanta. One of which reported,
“Sister” Roxy Turner, the head of the “Power” Church in Kentucky, was buried this afernoon. Sister Roxy was one of the most infuential women of the negro race in this state and in the South. She created a sensation about ten years ago by the organization of the so-called “Power” Church. She preached the doctrine that all who worshipped as they should and spent their days in the service of God received a mysterious “power” from heaven. She claimed herself to have received the “power” and claimed to have raised the dead and healed the sick.44
It is important to note that the Power Churches did not end at the death of Roxy Turner. Te church in Danville continued to hold a camp meeting, and even by 1909 records indicate the twelfh annual meeting of the Christian Faith Band Union. One interesting aspect of the Power Churches was the prominence of women leaders.
In one brief description of Roxy’s church, it notes that there were white lace curtains on the windows and a railing of white to separate the true believers from the general audience. Tere was also an arch over the railing with the inscription, “ Tis is the Holy Temple of Holiness of the Power of the Star of Bethlehem, the Holy
44 “’Power’ Church Organizer Buried: Sister Roxy Turner Had Great Infuence Over Negroes.” Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune, February 27, 1901: 2.
Ghost.”45 No special dress is noted at this time, but by 1903 there are accounts of women members wearing slate gray veils like Catholic nuns.46 In 1904, a woman in Louisville, named Annie Martin established a Christian Faith Band, where she was called “Mother in Israel” and the women came to worship dressed in white. When asked about her church, Annie replied,
“Our church is one of holiness,” she said. “We believe that a Christian should have no sin, and we teach it. We teach the old-time religion, and we fnd it in the Bible. We commune once a week and dress in white because it is an emblem of purity of the heart of our members. Our purpose is to save sinners, just like any other church, but we do not believe like most of the churches that a person can be part Christian and part sinner.”47
It is possible this use of special clothing developed afer the death of Roxy Turner, since there is no mention of this while she was living. But there is plenty of evidence that women preachers in the Christian Faith Band were fairly common, and this is likely tied to Roxy Turner herself. Other women teachers of the group include: Rev. Mary E. Bedinger, Harriet Grevious, and Ruth A. Murphy, who seems to take a major leadership role. In 1910, afer a convention held by Ruth A. Murphy, the group ofcially changed their name to “ Te Pentecostal Power Church for the
45 “Roxy Head of a Strange Kentucky Sect in as Ebony Priestess: How She Sways Her Followers and Conducts a Strange Weird Service.” St. Louis Dispatch, December 23, 1900: 43.
46 “‘Healer’ Given Cent and Costs: Two Negro Preachers Were Defendants- Lively Trial Before Justice Payne.” Lexington Herald, November 8, 1903: 16. Cf. “’Power Preacher’ Arrested.” Lexington Herald, August 24, 1904: 3.
47 “People Cannot Live Part Christian and Part Sinner”. Te Courier Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) December 5, 1904: 6.
Promulgation and Advancement of the Kingdom of God.”48 On the ofcial paperwork, Ruth A. Murphy is listed as the “chairman” of the group. While the Power Churches added “Pentecostal” to their name, it is not until 1912 that there is any indication of the practicing of glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” in the group.
Women continued to play a major role with Mary Bedinger and Ruth Murphy having key leadership and teaching roles, and other women’s names begin to appear including Sister Willie Saunders, Sister Brock, Sister Lena Fisher, and Sister America Jackson. By 1914, names include Pastor Lizzie Stewart and Pastor Alice Shores in Danville. Ruth Ann Murphy had been a preacher in the Star of Bethlehem Church back in 1909 and by 1920 through 1930 she was the pastor of the Pentecostal Power Church.
While, little is known about this group, it is clearly an example of how African-American women were empowered by the Holiness message, even in fairly remote locations. It is likely that similar situations occurred elsewhere, but were ofen not recorded in popular media of the time. Tere is some evidence that the Power Churches had infuence as far away as Cincinnati, and so the teachings of Roxy Turner may have infuenced other groups along the way. While it is complete speculation, it is interesting that William Seymour spent time in Cincinnati around the height of Roxy Turner’s work at the time of her death. Seymour’s version of Pentecostalism at the time of the Azusa Revival may owe some ideas to the Power Churches or pastors he may have encountered there.
48 “A New One: ‘ Te Pentecostal Power Church for the Promulgation and Advancement of the Kingdom of God’ is Incorporated.” Lexington Herald Leader May 11, 1910: 12.
of Susan Fogg, popularly known as
Susan”. (Image in the Public Domain)
Photo
“Black
Susan Fogg (1875- ?)
(Radical Holiness- Metropolitan Church Association)
Born in Louisburg, North Carolina, outside of Raleigh, Susan was the second child of fve children born to Archibald and Deliah Fogg.49 Susan’s father was a farm worker, and she never learned to read or write. Sometime around 1900, when she was in her early 20s, Susan headed north, most likely to look for work, since she indicated that was a driving force in her life at one time. She was recorded in 1903 saying, “I believe when God gave me enough salvation to give up washing and ironing, the fruit of the sacrifce was to be winning souls. I felt I was gone when I stopped my trade, but I praise God I ever died out and quit working for dollars, and when people come ‘round telling me to work for a salary I look to Jesus.”50
By 1901, Susan Fogg was working as the head of the laundry at the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute and Bible School in Saratoga Springs. Tis was their second year in operation out of the Kenmore Hotel, which was purchased to house the school. A scholar on the history of the school (later to become Eastern Nazarene College) wrote,
Probably the two greatest spiritual forces in the school during this year were the President and the Negro woman, Susan Fogg, who worked in the laundry. In a letter to his mother Tracy reported that the “head professor was keeping up a profession but has lost the experience of Holiness and God got hold of him and made him willing to be taught and led back again by the negro worker women (sic) who had charge of
49 Te content of this article is also original research by the author, which will come out in a more detailed form in a future article.
50 “ Te Missionary Meeting.” Te Burning Bush, September 3, 1903: 4.
the school laundry…” Not only was Susan Fogg an efective evangelist at the school but she was in great demand to hold services, especially in New England. Tracy enthusiastically predicted that in a few years she would become as popular as Amanda Smith.51
In July 1902, Susan Fogg attended the camp meeting at Camp Hebron in Attleboro, Massachusetts, where she is referred to as “Black Susan of Saratoga, N.Y.” Two days later, President L.C. Pettit of the Pentecostal Bible Institute also arrived at the camp meeting. Te article notes, “ Te ecstacy (sic) of the meetings has increased considerably. Yesterday one of the speakers climbed one of the timber uprights and preached down to his audience from among the rafers; another leaped upon the reading desk and spoke from there; the marching, leaping, creeping, shouting and evidence of strong physical ecstacy (sic) are very much in evidence.”52 Te report also includes a case of divine healing, and prophecy of a volcanic eruption in the Caribbean, which had been fulflled a week afer the prediction. However, despite all of this, the author ends the article noting,
Among the most interesting characters at the camp is the acrobatic but very earnest negro woman, “Black Susan.” Her exhortations, her remarks interjected at the top of her lungs into the remarks of the speakers, and her exhibitions of physical agility, which are continuous, make her easily the most conspicuous person at camp. Some of her sayings have been caught by Rev. Mr. Greene, and his little collection of them contains some very quaint gems of negro philosophy.53
51 James R. Cameron, Eastern Nazarene College: Te First Fify Years, Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House, 1968: 25.
52 “’Wrath of God.’ Man Who Prophesied Eruption of Mt Pelee.” Boston Daily Globe, July 9, 1902: 17.
53 Ibid.
It appears that Susan Fogg remained in Lowell, Massachusetts instead of returning to Saratoga. An introduction to a publication of some of her sayings, produced in 1902, contains an introduction by L.F. Mitchel.54 He wrote in his introduction,
Truly this “King’s daughter is all glorious within.” We praise God for ever sending this Spirit flled woman to the Pentecostal Institute. She had not been with us two days before eleven were on their faces, reminding one of Sammy Morris’ experience with the students. May God use her burning words and make them live coals to many a heart and tongue. We need more men and women who are packed with holy fre, and who travail in prayer, and shout God’s praises and leap for joy, and put the trumpet to their mouths and cry aloud, as Susan does. God bless her and make her one hundred times more than she is.55
Another introduction by Samuel G. Otis of the Christian Workers Union notes that she was present with that group for a year (most likely 1902). Otis established the Christian Workers Union in 1878 in Springfeld, Massachusetts. His work was publishing a monthly magazine Our Gospel Letter, which would later become Word and Work, as well as tracts known as Word of Life. Otis was one of the earliest holiness publishers to work all over Southern New England. His wife transcribed the sermons at the Portsmouth camp meeting, which Samuel helped organize in 1890. He wrote, “During the year Susan was with us, she used to say, ‘I’m settin’ in the beltry, pullin’;” by which she meant she was holding on to God
54 Mitchel would join the Metropolitan Church Association and leave his position as a professor of music at the Pentecostal Institute. He would become a major supporter of the MCA and write music and hymnbooks for the group.
55 Nuggets No. 2 From Black Susan, Words of Life, No. 111, gathered by Louis F. Mitchel, Christian Workers Union, Springfeld, MA, 1902: 2.
in prayer. We believe much more work could be accomplished for God if there were more ‘Beltry’ Christians.”56
At the time of another camp meeting at Camp Hebron on September 9, 1902, another article noted,
Camp Hebron was again yesterday the center of attraction for thousands of persons who are interested in the holiness movement. Te vast congregations at each service manifested great enthusiasm.
Rev. Arthur W. Greene of North Attleboro, Mrs. Susan Fogg of Lowell and Frank Governs of Saratoga, NY, were the principal speakers. Tey delivered stirring addresses. Said one: “If the churches and ministers are holy, they don’t have to be supported by selling beans, by selling neckties and by such things.”57
In December of 1902, the group from the Metropolitan Church Association descended on the town of North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Tey clearly had the way opened by Rev. Arthur Greene who was the pastor of two groups, the independent Emmanuel Pentecostal Church and the People’s Free Church. He had also established a holiness campground known as Camp Hebron in the area. Te Boston Post described the opening of the event on December 24, 1902,
Te “White Horses” have opened their holiness convention. Tose present are: E.L. Harvey, the sanctifed Chicago hotel man; Duke M. Farson, the sanctifed Chicago banker; Mrs. Kent White, said to be the greatest woman preacher in the West, hailing
56 Nuggets No. 2 From Black Susan, Words of Life, No. 111, gathered by Louis F. Mitchel, Christian Workers Union, Springfeld, MA, 1902: 2.
57 “Holiness Movement: Large Gathering at Each Service Held Yesterday.” Boston Daily Globe, September 9, 1902: 16.
from Denver, Col.; John Wesley Lee of Indiana; A.F. Ingler, the famous singer and composer of Denver, Col.; Susan Fogg, known all over this district as “Black Susan,” who created such a sensation in town last winter; Mrs. E.L. Harvey and F.M. Messenger of North Grosvenordale, Conn., who is chairman of the New England workers.
Te attendance, while small, has lots of spirit in it. A vigorous attack is expected to be made on the various secret orders.
E.L. Harvey conducted the services. Once or twice he let out and the hall re-echoed with the yells of the evangelists. Duke Farson was on the stage, and he helped matters along all he could. “Black Susan” also made herself conspicuous during the session. Before the convention is brought to a close many unheardof events are prophesied for North Attleboro by the evangelists.58
By December 26, 1902, the group of evangelists were expected to leave the Opera House where the convention was being held. Te article noted:
Owing to the fact that a theatre company was booked for this evening, the Holiness convention was obliged to adjourn to another hall. Te worshippers did not like the idea of leaving the opera house, and so started an outdoor rally. In a short time a crowd had gathered, and the street was blocked.
Chief of Police E. Carlisle Brown and ofcer Jesse B. Stevens were obliged to order the noisy singers inside. Susan Fogg, better known as “Black Susan,” and Mrs
58 “White Horses” Holding Holiness Convention.” Boston Post, December 25, 1902: 5.
Photo of T e Metropolitan Church Association Bible School in 1903, with Susan Fogg in the lower le f . T e Burning BushJune 4, 1903. (Image in the Public Domain)
Kent White of Denver, Colo., rebelled against the order, and called the chief a bulldog.
As she was forced through the door to the hall, she screamed out: “I pity this town. You’ll get your fngers burned if you touch me.”59
Tings got even more raucous as the convention continued into January of 1903, when a Miss Maud Reed died of heart disease during worship. Te physician said that the “heart disease was brought on by the excitement.” Te young woman was only 21 years old. Te account ends, noting, “Afer the young woman’s death the worshipers continued shouting and praying with added fervor. Susan Fogg, known as “Black Susan,” fainted away and it was more than an hour before she regained consciousness.”60
By April 30, 1903, Susan Fogg was conducting a revival in Lincoln, Nebraska with Mrs. Kent White as part of the Pentecostal Union Evangelists of Denver, Colorado.61 Mrs. Kent White explained in the article that in 1890 she lef the Methodist Church and joined the Burning Bush group to return to an earlier form of the “Shouting Methodists.” Susan Fogg is listed as “a colored exhorter of Boston, Mass.” Te article also contains a detailed description of the group’s eforts,
Te meetings are announced on the streets by Sister Fogg, who assisted by local converts, does a cake walk and a sort of dance. When she has gathered a large crowd she conducts them to the hall where the other evangelists are awaiting their arrival. As soon as the
59 “Didn’t Like It. Holiness Convention Had to Leave Opera House.” Boston Daily Globe, December 27, 1902: 2.
60 “Fatal Excitement. Maud Reed Succumbed to Heart Disease. Dropped Dead in Holiness Meeting in North Attleboro.” Boston Daily Globe, January 2, 1903: 7.
61 “Will Hold Meeting.” Lincoln Daily Star, April 30, 1903: 2.
audience begins to enter a musician strikes up a tune on the piano. Ten the Rev. Mr. Ingler begins to sing in a monotone, assisted by the other members of the party, some kneeling, others pacing back and forth on the platform and still others jumping up and down. Te music is continued for nearly an hour and its efect upon the more susceptible of the auditors soon sets them to swaying and singing in unison with the others. Afer the song is concluded a prayer begins. One member of the party prays in a frenzied and impassioned manner, gradually working himself up to a pitch where he shouts, screams and rages. During the prayer the other members of the party break in with various ejaculations.
As the prayer draws to a close the praying one rises to his feet, with arms extended outward and face turned upward and beseeches and entreats as though to avert some terrible crisis. Te others spring to their feet and as the prayer concludes another starts in. Friday night, Sister Fogg, in her excitement, grabbed a chair and swinging it alof marched up and down the platform whirling it over her head. Some of the mourners and penitents involuntarily “ducked” their heads to prevent a possible collision, but continued their swaying and crooning.
At the conclusion of the prayer the Rev. Mr. Ingler delivered a short sermon, SAY THE CHURCHES ARE WRONG.
“ Te churches are all wrong,” said he, “ Tere is no religion in them. At the Pentecostal supper the Lord and his disciples drank wine. Yes, wine. Some called them drunk, but, dear ones, they were not drunk on the wine, they were drunk with the spirit of the Holy Ghost. I am drunk with that same tonight.”
“I’se drunk, too, praise God,” vociferously declared Sister Susan as the speaker paused.
Mr. Ingler, at the conclusion of his address, introduced the Rev. Mrs. White, the leader of the sect in the United States. She is a forcible talker, but gradually as she got deeper and deeper in her sermon worked into a frenzy. She took as her theme the old story of Jonah and the whale. Her discourse was frequently interrupted by the others, and in some parts was in the nature of a dialogue.
“ Tere are Jonahs in this audience tonight,” she declared, and several of the colored members of the congregation glanced nervously at those occupying seats next to them. “You are all Jonahs, unless you have the love of God in your hearts and are sanctifed.”
During the progress of the meeting many of the audience, particularly the colored members, became excited and joined in the exhortations.
“ Te Lord is here tonight,” declared the speaker.
“Dat’s right! I sees you, Lord,” vehemently asserted a portly sister in the audience, carried away by the hypnotic infuence which the speaker seemed to extend.
“He wants to see you all up there,” continued the speaker.
“In cose he does, dat’s right,” assented the other.
“Give up all and follow Him,” went on the speaker. “He will provide. You won’t have to worry if you are sanctifed. Your heart’s desire will be gratifed.”62
62 “Pentecostal’s Noisy Meeting.” Lincoln Daily Star, May 2, 1903: 1.
A number of the saying of Susan Fogg have been recorded, and an assortment of them provides a good overview of her impact in these types of holiness meetings:
I prays in season an’ out of season, so as to make a season an’ be in season. Down South when it is dry we go to the pumps an’ sprinkle our gardens an’ make a wet season. So when it is dry, that is a sign to me that I mus’ pray, pump an’ sprinkle.63
I like grapes when they is cool an’ sweet. O, how good they tas’ on a hot day! Tat is jes’ what God feeds me on when my soul is dry an’ parched. He’s got lots of grapes for you if you’ll reach out an’ take ‘em.64
Berries that grow way up on the hill-side ain’t like those that grow down in the rich valley. If you want big, fat ones you mus’ go down in the valley. Tat’s where we gits the bes’ fruits of the Spirit.65
My people is gittin’ fashioned an’ stif. Tey don’t git down on their knees an’ foor as they use to do. Tat is the way I got it an’ I am goin’ to keep it. As you receives Jesus so mus’ you walk in Him. It took a heap to save me, an’ it takes a heap to keep me. I can’t ‘ford to let up on any of these lines, for I was an awful mean negro.66
Don’t let up on me, Lord. I wants to know the wors’ of my case now. Te day of judgment will be too late for me to fx up; so I asks You to turn your great lectrif light on me so I can see things jes’ as they is.67
63 Nuggets No. 2 From Black Susan, Words of Life, No. 111, gathered by Louis F. Mitchel, Christian Workers Union, Springfeld, MA, 1902: 4.
64 Nuggets No. 2 1902: 5.
65 Nuggets No. 2 1902: 6.
66 Ibid.
67 Nuggets No. 2 1902: 7.
Te Lord stir up our faith in us. Prayer is the key, but it takes faith to turn the key an’ unlock the door. Tere is lots of doors locked up an’ we need faith to unlock ‘em.68
I praise God I got salvation. I didn’t get religion an’ hang it up on a nail.69
All the Lord asks of me is to jes’ be my own black se’f, flled with the Holy Ghost.70
I bless God for freedom. When a bird sits up yonder in a tree, she ain’t askin’ who the tree belongs to, she jes’ sits an’ sings. Tat is what I am doin’ this mornin’. My soul is jes’ d’lightin’ herse’f in the Lord. Hallelujah!71
Lord, don’t you let me go to that convention if I wants to have a ‘scursion or a good time. You make me a ball of fre or You keep me home.72
I want to be boilin’ hot, so I can burn an’ blister sin an’ scal’ the devil. Some of you people haven’t got fre enough to burn a bug.73
I’m ‘shamed of some white folks, and some white folks is ‘shamed of me. I was in a ‘lectrif car once with a white friend, an’ he was ‘shamed of me ‘cause I was black, an’ I was ‘shamed of him, ‘cause he smelt of tobacker. 74
68 Nuggets No. 2 1902: 8.
69 Ibid.
70 “Black Susan.” Te Burning Bush, January 1, 1903: 3.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 “Black Susan.” Te Burning Bush, January 1, 1903: 4.
74 Ibid.
Last known photo of Susan FoggT e Burning BushOctober 8, 1903. (Image in the Public Domain)
Tey call me Black Susan, but I’ve got a salvation that’s mo’ than skin deep, an’ the Lord sees through the whole business an’ calls me whiter than snow.75
Te fate of Susan Fogg is a complete mystery. She was known to be headed to the mission feld in India at the end of 1903 with two white women, and she noted in an article at the time, refecting on her leaving North Carolina, “…the Lord said to me, ‘Go and I will go with you,’ and ‘Speak and I will speak through you,’ and I did not know then He wanted me to go to India and speak there, but you see you always get more than you ask for. Folks think strange for a white lady and a black lady to go together, but the Lord can put one white horse and one black horse together if they will pull.”76 Susan seems to have lef the group, either in New York, the port of departure, or London, when the group arrived, but she is not mentioned in the writings of the Metropolitan Church Association afer announcing she was headed to India. It is expected that if she remained in the United States, she likely would have continued her evangelistic ministry and would have appeared in the historic record again. Tis might be less likely if she abandoned the work in London, but whatever the case it is not clear where she spent the remainder of her life.
Most interesting in her story is the way she worked closely with Mrs. Kent White, who would later be known mostly as Alma White, who became the bishop of her own movement. In the history of the Holiness Movement, Alma White is most ofen known for her defense and even acceptance of the teachings of the Klu Kux Klan. Tis demonstrates some the tensions within her own movement and her theology, which allowed her to work so closely with some
75 Ibid.
76 “ Te Missionary Meeting.” Te Burning Bush, September 3, 1903: 5.
early African American evangelists, such as Susan Fogg early in her ministry, but to reject this later in her life.
Photo of Eliza Suggs. (Image in the Public Domain)
Eliza Suggs (December 11, 1876-January 29, 1908)
(Free Methodist Church)
Eliza Suggs is considered to have written the frst autobiographical account of a physically disabled African American woman.77 She had what is known today as Osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, where the person’s bones are so sof they can fracture easily. Tis is ofen accompanied by a lack of proper development leading to small stature. In the account of her life, Eliza noted that her parents were born into slavery. Her father had been born a twin, but was sold away at the age of three and never saw his loved ones again. She notes that his last name changed with the names of the people who purchased him, so he entered freedom afer the Civil War with the name James Suggs. He was a trained blacksmith, but had to teach himself to read, since slaves were not allowed an education. Eliza noted he would ofen challenge young white boys saying, “You can’t spell ‘horse’!” and the boys would then prove they could, and he would have learned a new word.
While still in slavery, James married a fellow slave of Mr. Suggs, named Malinda Filbrick. James Suggs was converted while still a slave, and had even begun talking about spiritual matters to other slaves, laying the groundwork for his future as a preacher. James took the opportunity when some Northern troops were passing to join them and fght for freedom, only reuniting with his wife and four children afer almost four years. Afer serving during the war, James Suggs’ captain, a Mr. Newton travelled to the South and brought his family out of North Carolina. James and Malinda remarried June 5, 1866 because their frst wedding ceremony had included wording which allowed the slave-holder to separate the husband and wife.
77 Most of the information here come from Eliza Sugg’s book, Shadow and Sunshine, Eliza Suggs: Omaha, NB 1906.
In 1874 James Suggs was given an exhorter’s license in the Free Methodist Church in Illinois. Tis was followed by a local preacher’s license in 1878, and in 1884 he became an ordained elder in the church. In 1885 the family relocated to Kansas. In 1886 they moved to Orleans, Nebraska because of a Free Methodist Seminary located there, but James Suggs continued as an evangelist throughout the region until he passed away May 22, 1889.
While James and Malinda Suggs had four children born into slavery, they also had four daughters born in Illinois afer they were reunited. Te youngest of these was Eliza. She was born December 11, 1876 near Providence, Illinois, but at the age of four weeks her bones began to break. Te doctors did not understand her case, so she was mostly homebound and unable to sit. Eliza even notes that her mother had Eliza’s burial clothes made expecting to need them soon. Eliza stopped growing at only 33 inches high and only reached a weight of 50 pounds by adulthood. A baby carriage was adapted as a method to move her around without breaking her bones. She wrote that about at age fve, “One day while lying on the bed in my room alone, the Lord came to me. I wanted to be a Christian and know that I was saved. While praying for this the Lord heard my prayer and blessed my soul. I was not at that time, more than fve years old, and I have served the Lord ever since. I am thankful I have been preserved and kept from the wickedness of the world.”78
Not able to go to school, Eliza’s sisters taught her how to read and write at home. In Orleans, her sisters attended the Seminary. In 1889, the principal of the Seminary, Mrs. Emma H. Haviland, ofered Eliza’s mother free tuition so Eliza could get an education, and so friends carried her into the room up the stairs. Te Seminary closed in 1890, but another opportunity arose for her to continue
78 Suggs 1906: 59.
learning. While at the Seminary, Eliza won a silver medal for the best speaker on the subject of temperance. Eliza made parallels between slavery and the slavery of alcohol. It was this subject which would compel her to speak about temperance as her life work. She also continued a deep interest in missions and wished she had been able to serve in Africa.
Many people thought or suggested that her parents should make money of of her as a carnival side show attraction, and her response was, “God did not create me for this purpose. He created me for His glory, and if I can be a help to any one, and if God can get glory to His name out of my life, amen! To this end shall I live.”79 Eliza also responded to those who felt she could never be happy in her condition,
It is the sunlight of God in my soul that makes me happy. It would be hard to live without the Lord. I get much pleasure from the reading of good books. I enjoy looking at the beautiful things in nature and art. I love to listen to the singing of the birds and to sweet music. In fact many pleasures come to me through the fve senses, of which I have full use. Ten too, I have good use of my hands and can work and earn a little. And of the little I earn, the Lord gets the tenth. Tat is His. I am so thankful that the Lord enables me to work in this way. For if I could not use my hands, or if I could not read, time would drag heavily, and life would become very monotonous. Te work I do is knitting, crocheting, fancy work, and making horse hair watch chains. Te Lord always provides a way for His children.”80
79 Suggs 1906: 65.
80 Suggs 1906: 66-67.
Eliza’s book also records stories of her mother and father’s experience of slavery as she speaks out against this evil. In addition, she includes poems, including some of her own. One poem, which carries her thoughts on the sense of urgency in her life is a poem called “Death of the Old Year”. She wrote,
Tick tock, tick tock, time is fying Tick tock, tick tock, the old year is dying Soon the Old Year will be gone Soon the New Year will be on So the time is fying
Tick tock, tick tock.
Tick tock, tick tock, time is fitting
Tick tock, tick tock, no time for fretting But let us always keep in view
Our days on earth are few And there’s lots of work to do Tick tock, tick tock.
Tick tock, tick tock, the clock is striking Tick tock, tick tock just while I’m writing Another hour has swifly gone Te Old Year is nearly gone. Oh, how the time is hastening on, Tick tock, tick tock.
Tick tock, tick tock, time is going Tick tock, tick tock, what are we doing?
We must labor hard to fnd Souls for God, and bear in mind We’ll not always have this time.
Tick tock, tick tock.
Tick tock, tick tock, sixty minutes more Tick tock, tick tock, the Old year will be o’er
Twelve oclock has now rolled round
Old Year has entirely gone Happy New Year now has come Tick tock, tick tock.
Tick tock, tick tock, soon time will be no more Tick tock, tick tock, then all will be o’er
Let us labor hard this year
Working for the Lord with fear
Eternity is drawing near, Tick tock, tick tock.81
Eliza participated in Temperance talks as she was able. She passed away on January 29, 1908, shortly afer her 31st birthday.
81 Suggs 1906: 95-96.
(Image courtesy of the Archives of God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio)
Photo of Irene Blyden with Minnie Knapp- 1915.
Irene Blyden Taylor (October 15, 1884-October 9, 1958) (Pilgrim Holiness/ Wesleyan Church)
Irene Blyden was born on the island of Saba, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean known as the Dutch West Indies.82 Tis small isolated island is only about fve square miles in size and mostly consists of mountainous volcanos, with no good port or beach for easy access. Traveling on the island was mostly a matter of ascending steep stairs cut into the rocky sides of the mountains. But, about 1900 a trio of missionaries, Fred and Adelia Dunnell and Miss Nellie Guild came to the island to hold evangelistic services. Tese three were all from North Attleboro, Massachusetts, which was an early center for the Holiness Movement in New England. Tey were the frst holiness missionaries to reach Saba, which had a small Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Methodist presence. Irene appears to have been converted at one of these meetings when she was about 16.
In 1902, another holiness missionary from Massachusetts, named C.O. Moulton arrived with his wife and daughter. Tey arrived at St. Kitts where the Dunnells and Miss Guild were posted and Moulton was encouraged to establish a mission on Saba. During the year he was there, Irene seems to have worked in the Moulton’s home and in the church, and her work was impressive. In his memoirs, Moulton would write,
When we organized the Sunday school I gave a class to Irene. Irene is a black girl whom God had wonderfully saved and sanctifed. She lived in our home while we were there, and during all the time she was with us I never saw anything contrary to perfect love.
82 Te information for this section comes from original research, which will be presented in a forthcoming article in Te Asbury Journal in Spring 2025.
Te frst time I met Irene was in St. Kitts, when she stepped from a little sail boat, and as I shook hands with her I felt I had met a saint of God.
I remarked “ Tat is a little boat,” and she answered, “Yes, a little boat, but a great God.”
Afer I had given her the class in the Sunday School at St. John’s the members began to get saved, one afer another would come to the meetings in Te Bottom, and get to God, until half a dozen of them had been saved.83
When Moulton and his family returned to New England in 1905, on a short furlough, he brought along Irene, who is listed on the ship’s manifest as working as a nurse for Mrs. Moulton of Providence, Rhode Island.
However, Irene did not remain as a nurse for long. Moulton appears to have sent Irene to God’s Bible School and College in Cincinnati, Ohio, which had been founded as an important Holiness school in 1900 by Martin Wells Knapp. As Knapp’s widow, Minnie Knapp would write later, “…Irene was one of our old students, and indeed, as Brother Moulton declared when sending her to us years ago, ‘a saint in ebony,’ we had a great desire that God might not only use her and make the meeting a great blessing to the people present, but make it count for the West Indies and South America as well, and surely He heard and answered.”84 Irene studied at God’s Bible School and College, graduating in 1909. Tere she sat under the teaching of a number of notable Holiness scholars including
83 C.O. Moulton, Exploits in the Tropics, published in 1907, Pickett Publishing Company, Louisville, KY: 46-47.
84 Mrs. M. W. Knapp, “Farewell Meetings,” God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate, May 11, 1916: 8.
Oswald Chambers and William B. Godbey. Here she also met her future husband Richard Alfred Taylor from the island of St. Kitts.
When Irene lef God’s Bible School and College at the end of 1909, she travelled with an evangelistic team sponsored by the school and led by Rev. and Mrs. James M. Taylor. Te team was seeking to evangelize other areas of the Caribbean. When they arrived, Irene headed for her home on the island of Saba, but when the group reached St. Kitts, she joined their work. While their work was advancing, a number of people asked them to go to the neighboring island of Nevis, and so Taylor sent Irene to hold meetings. At frst Irene was hesitant. She had plans to go as a missionary to Africa, but feeling led by God she took a couple others with her to Nevis. Te services were so successful, Irene felt it necessary to call for Taylor and the rest of his group to come over and bring their tents and equipment. Te next three weeks saw enormous success and so Taylor lef Irene to pastor the new congregations. By this time, Irene had heard decisively from God, that “Here is your Africa.”
Irene Blyden continued the work of planting churches on the island of Nevis, and would even be known by some as “God’s Apostle to Nevis.” She would travel all over the island, preaching frst in the open air, and later in the various churches she planted and helped build. As the churches became part of the Apostolic Holiness Church, Irene went and helped hold revivals in Trinidad and Georgetown, Guyana in 1914. From 1915-1916, Irene made a return trip to God’s Bible School and would be one of the speakers at the 1915 camp-meeting at the school. Here she would share the platform with important holiness fgures of the time, such as George B. Kulp, John Wesley Hughes, F.M. Messenger, William B. Godbey, and well-known missionaries like Charles and Lettie Cowman from Japan, and Charles Slater from Africa.
Photo of teachers and Students at God’s Bible School in May or June of 1907. Irene is in the middle of the right-hand side of the photo among female students.
(Image in the Author’s Collection)
She stayed at the school afer the camp-meeting, and when the time came for her to leave, the school’s paper would note,
On March 19, Sister Irene Blyden, from the West Indies, who has been in America for the past few months, representing the needs of her people, preached her farewell sermon in the Tabernacle, to a large and appreciative audience. Her text was, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” God blessed her in giving this message. One interesting little incident she related, was that of a little boy coming to her on shipboard and telling her things he had heard about there being German war boats near them. One day he came, quite excited, telling her something new he had heard, and she told him that if the waters were full of German war vessels that that ship could not go down, because she was on board. “Why,” he innocently asked, “Are you the wife of the Kaiser?” “No,” she replied, “but I am a daughter of the King!”
Te following day Sister Blyden lef, accompanied by Sister Knapp, enroute for New York, holding a series of missionary meetings along the way. As she sails on the 14th, when this is in print she will be on her way. As they went to take the street car, a crowd of students gathered on the corner, and amid the waving of handkerchiefs, and the shouting of farewells, sang, “Here am I, Lord, send me, send me!”85
Her missionary tour was a success, travelling with Minnie Knapp (except when they were forced to ride in separate train cars when they travelled through Kentucky). She spoke almost every
85 “Bible School Notes,” God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate, April 27, 1916: 11.
day to people who ofen had never met a missionary before, and she gathered many oferings for the work on Nevis.
Te friendship with Minnie Knapp continued when the elderly widow decided to make a tour of the Caribbean missions in 1918. Irene especially spent time with Knapp on the island of Nevis, and then helped her on the treacherous landing on Saba.
On August 27, 1919, Irene Blyden married Rev. Richard Alfred Taylor, her old classmate, on the island of Saba. Tey would have four children, including Wingrove Taylor, who would go on to become the president of the Caribbean Pilgrim College and the General Superintendent of Te Wesleyan Holiness Church (Caribbean Provisional General Conference of Te Wesleyan Church).
As the churches of the International Apostolic Holiness Church merged into the Pilgrim Holiness Church and eventually the Wesleyan Church, Irene’s role diminished. Traditional views of men in spiritual leadership seem to have eclipsed her role as a preacher, church planter, evangelist, and missionary. No foreign missionary was ever needed to live on Nevis because of the amazing job Irene did. On October 9, 1958, Irene Blyden Taylor passed away in Charlestown, Nevis. It is recorded that her last words before passing were to quote Psalms 27:4, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek afer; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.”86 Hundreds of people are recorded as coming out to view Mother Blyden-Taylor lying in state at the church, and the grave had so many fowers they spilled
86 Ira M. Taylor, “ Te Hour of Her Triumph (A Tribute to My Mother).” Unpublished 8-page typed manuscript from the fles of the Archives of the Wesleyan Church. Written note indicates it was received by Paul William Tomas from Mrs. E.E. Phillippe on October 25, 1962: 6.
over and covered her husband’s tomb as well. At the time of her death, there were fve Pilgrim Holiness Churches on Nevis with a total membership of 265, roughly 2% of the entire population of the island.
Photo of Emma and Lloyd Ray. (Image in the Public Domain)
Emma Ray (January 7, 1859-November 25, 1930)
(Free Methodist Church)
Emma Ray starts of her autobiography writing, “I was born twice, bought twice, sold twice, and set free twice. Born of woman, born of God; sold in slavery, sold to the devil; freed by Lincoln, set free by God.”87 Te daughter of John Smith and Jennie Boyd, Emma was born in Springfeld, Missouri. At just one month old, she, her sister, and mother were sold at auction. Her father had threatened to run away if they were sold, so two of his slave owners purchased the young family.
Her father had come as a slave to a young lady as a child, and was quite treasured by the family, which can be seen by their desire to purchase his wife and daughters. Growing up, he had taught himself to read and write by listening to the family’s children doing their school work and stealing their books. Emma’s mother had been sold twice and had lost her only brother when he was sold away as a child to a slave trader. Emma had an additional three brothers and one sister who had been kept by her mother’s former owners. During the Civil War when Emma was just three or four, the small family of four was taken south to Arkansas to avoid Federal troops, while the other siblings remained in Missouri. Later captured by Northern troops, the family was returned to Springfeld and slave owners were ordered to free their slaves by General Freemont. Without a place to live or ability to provide for themselves the family found shelter with a Northern sympathizer and were reunited in a log cabin on his property. Emma noted that because her father was the only African American in the area who could read and write, he was kept busy by other freed slaves asking
87 Most of this section comes from Emma Ray’s book, Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed: Autobiography of Mr. and Mrs. L.P. Ray. Chicago, IL: Te Free Methodist Publishing House, 1926: 15.
him to write letters to help them seek for relatives who had been sold to other places. Emma’s mother died in 1868, shortly afer being freed, leaving nine children. By age nine, Emma was working for a doctor caring for his baby and washing dishes. In the winter, she would go to classes provided by Northern white missionaries.
As Emma began to work for a Methodist lady, she began to attend services and camp meetings. But the lure of fashion and other worldly temptations kept her from any serious religious involvement. She then moved to work in Western Missouri where she met her husband, Lloyd P. Ray in Carthage, Missouri in 1881. Tey were married in 1887 in Fredonia, Kansas. Ray was a stonecutter and mason, but was also fond of alcohol. Te marriage developed a lot of problems and the couple moved frequently, fnally ending up in Seattle. Feeling drawn to a church service afer the death of a close friend, Emma came to an experience of salvation, but the situation with her husband seemed to get worse. Finally, Lloyd also experienced salvation at a church revival his wife encouraged him to attend.
Later some white people arrived to teach the concept of holiness and sanctifcation, and Emma and Lloyd were hungry for the experience. Afer multiple eforts to gain the experience, Emma claimed the experience and expected nothing else. Ten while reading a book she related,
…all of a sudden it seemed that a streak of lightning had struck over the corner of the house, and it struck me on the top of the head, and went through my body from head to foot like liquid fre, and my whole body tingled. I tried to rise and was so weak I fell back upon the lounge and I said, “What, Lord?” and there came another dash of glory through my being and a voice inside of me said, “Holy.” I tried to rise, but had not the strength and I cried, “O, glory! Te Holy Ghost
has come into my heart.” As my strength began to return, I felt a passion, such a love for souls as I have never felt before. I saw a lost world. My heart became hot. A fre of holy, abiding love for God and souls was kindled at that hour and I felt to say with Isaiah, “Here am I, Lord, send me.” It was the fre that still burns in my soul this very moment, and I feel it will last until Jesus comes.88
Lloyd had a similar experience soon afer.
Emma went on to become the president of the Colored Women’s Christian Temperance Union in the area. Te couple began to go and work with people in the bars and in the jails, to bring them to Christ. Tis continued into work in hospitals and in the streets, which then opened the way to work in the slums of Seattle with Mrs. O.S. Ryther, who had a mission and a rescue home and was known as “Mother Ryther”. Tis included work with girls in dance halls, drug addicts, and orphans.
As Emma was working in the jails, she frst met a group of Free Methodists from Ross. Tey included a Sister Griggs and a student from the Seattle Seminary under the charge of Rev. A. Beers (this would later become Seattle Pacifc College). Emma and Lloyd visited the Free Methodist Church in Ross, as persecution began to mount in their own church with several changes in pastors. Finally, the Rays decided to go permanently with the Free Methodists.
In 1896 and 1897, the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska began, and Lloyd worked as a porter in a dry goods store. As thousands of men stormed in to buy clothes for the Alaska climate, they lef their old clothes behind, and the Rays were able to save and distribute these clothes to the poor of the city. Many of these same men came back through Seattle injured from being frozen by exposure, and many were open to hearing the Rays’ message of salvation.
88 Ray 1926: 63.
Photo of the Rays’ mission in Kansas City, Missouri. (Image in the Public Domain)
In 1900, Emma Ray returned to Kansas City to visit her relatives, and when Lloyd joined her, they decided to spend some time working in that area, especially since little was being done among the African Americans. Emma entered into the work of visiting prisons, and working with children in the streets. Her ministry grew, and she noted that it was ofen referred to as Sister Ray’s mission because she did the preaching, but she included both “Brother and Sister Ray’s Mission” because Lloyd took secular jobs in order to fund the mission work. Eventually the couple had a house in the worst part of town, near the mission so they were always available. Emma was also active in street meetings as well as prison work and working with children and the poor in Kansas City.
In August of 1902, the Rays lef Kansas City and returned to Seattle. Tey reconnected with friends in the Free Methodist Church and within the African American religious community. Tey rented rooms and then began to work with the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church and a Reverend Faulk who ran a mission called Te Stranger’s Rest. From this location Emma led street meetings and brought in people to the mission, ofen sufering from alcoholism. In this sense, she operated much like the Salvation Army. Eventually, this mission was taken over by Rev. C.S. McKinley and became the Olive Branch Mission. Emma described her typical work,
Te superintendent would step into the ring and say, “Men, we have a lighthouse down on Railroad Avenue. Come down and hear the gospel. If there are any sick among you, we will give you help, free of charge. If any of you are hungry, we will give you a cup of cofee and a bowl of stew. If any are without beds, we will let you stay in the mission by the fre away from the rain and cold.”
We would start down the street singing and they would follow us like a drove of chickens, and oh, such a sight. Tere were the lame, the halt, some partly blind, dope fends, delirious drunks, some with bruises from fghts, others with putrifying sores, and quite a few hungry and naked.
Tis was out of ordinary for street meetings, because they had been to Alaska and had become sick through exposure and hardships, and had made their way back to Seattle. Tis explains why there were so many of this kind of men. Tey were from every class, from an ex-judge and university professor to the most illiterate and degraded class of humanity.89
Emma Ray was also quite involved with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. During the 1899 National Convention, which was held in Seattle, Lucy Turman, the national organizer among African Americans, desired to reorganize the work. Emma Ray was the president of their area at the time, and while she had to resign when she went to Kansas City, a reference letter from the group was a key part in helping her get into ministry in Kansas City. Obviously, temperance was a big part of her mission work in the streets and among the poor. Emma devoted an entire chapter in her book to the 1914 passing of prohibition in Washington and her joy at seeing the end of the saloon industry.
Emma Ray also noted in her book that Amanda Smith came to Seattle to hold meetings, and afer the meetings, she visited the Rays in their home. At the time, the Rays were becoming interested in the work of Dowie, and Smith warned them the he was a fanatic and to be cautious. From her they learned about discerning false prophets. Emma’s frst experience in doing special singing in
89 Ray 1926: 158-159.
meetings actually occurred when she was asked to sing at one of Amanda Smith’s meetings in Seattle.
In 1903, Emma’s father and step-mother decided to move in with them in Seattle. Since the Rays lived in rented rooms in some of the worst areas of the city for their mission work, they bought a lot in a suburb and began to build a house. Since Lloyd was a trained stone mason, he was able to gather free sources of stone and men from the mission to help work, and other resources which became available.
Meanwhile Emma continued to work at Te Stranger’s Rest mission and conduct evangelistic services and preach at revivals and camp meetings, even down in Portland. As Te Stranger’s Rest became Te Olive Branch Mission in Seattle, the work became more supported by the Free Methodists. Rev. McKinley who ran the mission and chose Emma Ray to lead the Sunday evening services, was replaced by Charles and Ruey Witteman when McKinley took a Free Methodist church. Besides the traditional mission work, Te Olive Branch Mission also worked as a home for Christian sailors when they came into port.
Te Rays attended Pine Street Free Methodist Church under Rev. C. E. McReynolds before they lef for Kansas City. On their return, afer careful consideration and reading through the discipline, they joined the Green Lake Free Methodist Church which was closer to their new house, but also at that time was under Rev. McReynolds as well.
At one camp meeting a young girl asked her why she was black, and in her discussion of this question and the answer, Emma Ray wrote,
I told her of the diferent kinds of animals, birds, and fowers, and that He also made diferent colored people- some white, some black, some red, and some yellow, and the He loved them all, and that it was His choice to make me black and her white…I am perfectly satisfed with my color, and I would be almost frightened to death if I should turn white. I can truly say that I have never seen any one with whom I would change faces or places. I am satisfed with the way God made me. I want to just be myself in the Lord, because it pleases Him to have it so. Te only thing I covet above everything, is to have a pure, white heart.90
By 1920 the Rays were getting older and working in the streets in the rain was taking a toll on their health, so they fnished their work at Te Olive Branch Mission, but they continued working at revivals in the area. In 1926, Emma Ray published her story in the book Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed: Autobiography of Mr. and Mrs. L.P. Ray (Free Methodist Publishing House, Chicago, IL). Emma Ray died November 25, 1930 and was buried in Seattle. Lloyd P. Ray would pass away April 25, 1940.
90 Ray 1926: 316-317.
Photo of Emma Elizabeth Craig. (Image in the Public Domain)
Emma Elizabeth Craig (1872- October 26, 1966)
(United Holy Church of America)
One of the oldest Black Pentecostal-Holiness churches is the United Holy Church of America.91 It was established in May 1866 in Method, North Carolina, by a group of holiness African American men from Raleigh. William Turner noted,
One of the frst churches to be organized was in the home of Elder and Mrs. C.C. Craig in Durham, North Carolina. Inspired by the Method meeting, they proceeded to build a church edifce which was completed in 1889 on a lot adjacent to their home. Tis church, which became known as the Durham Tabernacle, was a center for holiness and became a focal point for the convergence of several groups throughout the state. In addition, it became a seedbed for numerous churches in the Durham area.92
In 1894 the frst convocation of “Holy People” in North Carolina was held in Durham. Rev. and Mrs. Charles Christopher Craig called for a meeting of the various African American Holiness churches in the area to develop the discipline and standardize the form of government in October of 1900 for what was then called the Holy Church of North Carolina and Virginia. Tis early meeting included the wife of Rev. Craig, Mrs. Emma Elizabeth Craig as one of the few African American women involved in this movement. In 1916 the group was ofcially named the United Holy Church of America.
91 Most of the information in this section comes from: Chester W. Gregory, Te History of the United Holy Church of America, Inc. 1886-1986. Gateway Press, Inc.: Baltimore, MD. 1986.
92 William Clair Turner, Jr. Te United Holy Church of America: A Study in Black Pentecostalism. Ph.D. Dissertation from Duke University, 1984: 50.
Born in 1872, Emma was the daughter of freed slaves, Mary and Harvey Collins, in Roxboro, North Carolina. Born in the period of Reconstruction, Emma’s parents were concerned that she be educated, so she was sent to school and ultimately graduated from Shaw University and became a teacher. Shaw University was the frst historically black college in the South, founded originally by the American Baptist Home Missionary Society in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1865. She married Charles Craig in 1892, lef teaching, and bore one daughter, Leory Craig. Charles C. and Emma Elizabeth Craig had been part of St. Joseph African Methodist Episcopal Church in Raleigh, but were forced to leave that group due to their acceptance of sanctifcation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Tey both served as ministers in prayer meetings held in individual houses and on October 13, 1894, they helped unite several independent Holiness churches into the Holy Churches of North Carolina in the meeting held in their home.
It was Rev. C.C. Craig, along with other church leaders concerned about an ofcial document to lead the group, which led to the calling of the October 15, 1900 meeting to develop a manual. It was Emma Craig who edited the original 1900 document, which led the group for the next ten years. Emma and her husband were partners in ministry. Between 1900 and 1917 the couple planted 16 churches, as Chester W. Gregory wrote, “Each one of the sixteen Churches stands as historical monuments to the ministerial eforts of a man and woman who teamed themselves together not only in holy matrimony but who teamed themselves to found, organize, to build and to expand the United Holy Church of America.”93 In 1921, the couple moved to Kinston, North Carolina, where C.C. Craig died in 1928. Emma then moved to Philadelphia.
93 Chester W. Gregory, Te History of the United Holy Church of America, Inc. 1886-1986. Gateway Press, Inc.: Baltimore, MD. 1986: 42-43.
In 1917 Emma established the Holiness Union as the ofcial publication of the United Holy Church, serving as its frst editor for one year. She became the Assistant Secretary of the Southern District Convocation from 1900-1920, and then continued to serve as the Secretary for an additional twenty-eight years. In 1938, Emma Craig would go on to pastor Mount Calvary United Holiness Church in Philadelphia. Along with Rev. Mrs. Julia A. Delk, Emma would also help establish the Women’s Home and Foreign Missionary Convention of the United Holy Church in 1917. Emma Craig was president of the Women’s Missionary Convention of the Southern District from 1917-1965. Later, Rev. Mrs. Emma Craig would be named General Church Mother of the United Holy Church. She died at age 94 on October 26, 1966.
Priscilla Wimbish (Dates Unknown) (West Middlesex Camp Meeting/ Church of God (Anderson)
About 1904, an African American Baptist couple from Cleveland, Ohio had a vision for a camp meting site.94 Teir names were Elisha and Priscilla Wimbush. Teir nephew, Jerry Luck, recorded some of the details of his uncle’s vision, …a very large place on a hill and the people of God gathering from far and near to worship God in Spirit and truth. He also saw a part was lower farm land with a large house to shelter the saints in time of famine and there was a cemetery to bury the old and poor saints as they pass on from labor to reward.95
Te Wimbushes relocated to Sharon, Pennsylvania in response to this vision. Priscilla Wimbush organized a prayer band, with the permission of her Baptist pastor to promote love and forgiveness in the congregation. Eventually, the group came to experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit and sanctifcation. Elisha Wimbush and some of the men were expelled from the church because of their views on sanctifcation, and Priscilla Wimbush and some of the others lef the church voluntarily as they held the same views. Te group continued to meet without a formal church and called themselves the Sisters and Brothers of Love. While preaching on the streets of Sharon, their group grew and because of interactions with both African American and white pastors, they began to develop in an interracial direction. A white Church of
94 Most of this information comes from: Zion’s Hill at West Middlesex by Katie H. Davis. Reprinted in 2007 by Reformation Publishers, Prestonsburg, KY. See also, Te History of the West Middlesex Camp Meeting & Te National Association of the Church of God by Rev. Dr. Cheryl J. Sanders (2016), no place of publication given. Accessed at: https://0j.b5z.net/i/u/10208253/f/ TeHistoryofNACOG.pdf
95 Davis 2007: 22.
God (Anderson) pastor invited the group to their denominational camp meeting. Te Sisters and Brothers of Love decided to join the Church of God (Anderson), but not to accept the camp meeting ofer, but rather to follow the Wimbush vision. Priscilla Wimbush was made an evangelist of the new congregation. As Cheryl Saunders noted,
In a pattern ofen repeated in the formation of black churches in the Sanctifed movement, the fedgling group was led and housed by women, and, once the congregation was established, a man was called as pastor. Sister Wimbush frst received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and led the group to “come out” of the Baptist church, and they frst worshipped in the home of Sister Hattie Roddy. On becoming ofcially incorporated as a congregation, however, the frst pastor called to serve was Brother Blackburn.96
Shortly afer forming the new congregation, one member found a site which resembled that described in Elisha Wimbush’s vision. Elisha confrmed the location and the congregation purchased 127 acres. Te frst camp meeting was held in August of 1917.
Initially the camp meeting was called the Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio Camp Ground Association, and then became the Gospel Industrial Association of the Church of God Evening Light. Commonly called the West Middlesex camp meeting, it was focused on being open and interracial, allowing whites and blacks to worship together. Traditionally, the Church of God (Anderson) General Assembly would meet each year and was racially mixed, but in 1915 they passed a resolution to separate the black and white members. At least one Mother of the Wessex group,
96 Saunders 1996: 25.
Laura Moore, noted how African Americans used to enjoy going to the mixed meetings in Anderson, and were deeply saddened when told, “ Tere are too many of your people coming here. You’ll hinder the whites from coming and being saved. Why don’t you get a place of your own.”97 West Middlesex became that camp meeting center for the African Americans of the Church of God (Anderson). Te camp meeting is still held and West Middlesex Campground remains the oldest African American operated campground in the United States.
97 Davis 2007: 47.
Photo of Bishop Ida B. Robinson. (Image in the Public Domain)
The
Women Bishops of Mount Sinai Holy Church of America
Ida B. Robinson (August 3, 1891-April 20, 1946)
Mary E. Jackson (1881-November 8, 1983)
Amy B. Stevens (?-September 14, 2000)
Ruth Satchell (May 26, 1910-March 1, 2011)
Ida Bell was born August 3, 1891 to Robert and Annie Bell in Hazlehurst, Georgia, but spent much of her childhood in Pensacola, Florida.98 At seventeen she attended a street service conducted by the Church of God in Pensacola where she experienced sanctifcation. She was married to a preacher by the name of Oliver Robinson in 1910, and although they had no children, they did adopt a niece, also named Ida Bell. In 1917, the couple lef Pensacola for Philadelphia to fnd work. Ida began her work in ministry as an associate in a small Holiness church led by Elder Benjamin Smith, where she preached in his absence.
Her popularity increased, but due to dissention in the church, Ida joined the United Holy Church of America and was ordained by Bishop Henry Fisher. She took up a pastorate in a small mission church called Mt. Olive, but in 1924 felt called to leave the male-dominated church and found an organization based on equality for men and women. Part of this was due to powerful dreams and visions where God desired her to bring full clergy rights to women. In the frst convocation of the group, the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America was founded and Ida was made the
98 Much of this information comes from church websites: http://www. mtsinaiholychurch.org/images/Ida.pdf and also: Te Bishops: Te Mount Sinai Holy Church of America Celebrates Teir Former Leaders. Great Leaders from our Past. Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. 2024. Also, Te Churches of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. Te 99th Holy Convocation Centennial Commemorative Journal, volume one (revised). Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. 2024.
Senior Bishop. She adapted some of the outfts she saw from the Church of God members who had led to her sanctifcation, and so her early members wore black dresses with starched white cufs and collars.
Ida Robinson’s work as an evangelist, preacher, and spiritual leader helped her grow the denomination until her death on April 20, 1946 while on a trip to Winter Haven, Florida to visit some of the churches in the area. At the time of her death, the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. had 84 churches and 160 ordained ministers with 125 of them being women. She had also led the church in founding a school in Philadelphia and mission work in Cuba and Guyana.
On the death of Ida Robinson, the title of Bishop passed to Elmira Jefries.99 As a charter member of the small denomination, Elmira became the frst Vice President. She was born December 2, 1882 in Littleton, North Carolina to John and Betty Williams. She experienced salvation at age 12, was sanctifed at 20, and then felt called into ministry. She was married to William Henry Jefries, a policeman, but ultimately found her spiritual home at the Mount Olive Holy Church in Philadelphia. In 1946, Bishop W.E. Fuller, the President of the Fire Baptized Holy Church, set her aside to be the new Bishop, and she became the President of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. and the pastor of Mount Olive Holy Temple. Elmira Jefries’ home in Philadelphia would become the ofce for the church and the denomination later purchased the hospital next door to become a skilled nursing care facility for the elderly as part of the church’s ministry. She passed away on June 15,1964, known as a leader of prayer and faith.
With the death of Elmira Jefries, the leadership of the Mount Sinai Holy Church passed to Bishop Mary E. Jackson, another 99 http://www.mtsinaiholychurch.org/images/Jefries.pdf
charter member of the church.100 Born in 1881, Bishop Jackson grew up in the Methodist Church in Florida. She experienced sanctifcation and felt called to the ministry, being ordained at the United Holy Church in Philadelphia. Under Bishop Jefries, she became the president of the nursing facility which would become the Elmira Jefries Memorial Home. She was active and loved as a pastor and, following the death of Bishop Jefries, became the leader of the group in 1964. She continued to direct and lead the group until she retired from the pastorate in 1980. With her death on November 8, 1983, Bishop Jackson at 102 years old was the oldest bishop to serve the Mount Sinai Holy Church.
With the death of Bishop Mary Jackson, Amy B. Stevens was appointed as the fourth female bishop of the Mount Sinai Holy Church in 1983. She expanded ministries of the church by creating the Mount Sinai Training Institute and travelled to visit mission churches in Guyana and Cuba. She was also one of the founders of the International Fellowship of Black Pentecostal Churches in 1984. On her death on September 14, 2000, Bishop Ruth Satchell became president in her mid 90s. Born on May 26, 1910 in Maryland, Bishop Satchell was married to Henry Warren Satchell, had seven children, and founded three churches. She had worked as a nurse in Philadelphia. She served only one year as the shortest term for president in the history of Mount Sinai Holy Church, but she would serve as President Emeritus until her death on March 1, 2011 at 100 years of age.
It was not until 2001 that the Mount Sinai Holy Church would appoint a male bishop as president. Bishop Joseph H. Bell, Sr. would serve from 2001-2015 and Bishop John Emanual Holland from 2015-2023. Currently the church has returned to female leadership under Bishop Grace Ruth Batten, who became president in 2024.
100 http://www.mtsinaiholychurch.org/images/Jackson.pdf
Te Holiness Movement faced a major turning point in 1906 with the Azusa Street Revival and the growth of the Pentecostal Movement. It is a common mistake to see these two movements as very clearly divided. In 1906, the people involved with early Pentecostalism would have likely defned themselves as Holiness people. Te real shaping of a separate movement would not be complete until the early 1920s. Teologically, there was very little diference except on the issue of speaking in “tongues.” Pentecostals would argue that this was the defning sign of being sanctifed or baptized with the Holy Spirit, while the Holiness Movement argued that this was an inner experience, which was not defned by any particular external sign. When we look at Azusa Street, it is too easy to classify this as Pentecostalism instead of being one type of a Holiness ministry, but these two movements are really intricately connected.
Azusa Street is ofen defned by its key leader, William Seymour, an African American who had been infuenced on the teachings on “tongues” by Charles Parham, a white Holiness teacher. Te African American Holiness women who played a role in this key event are ofen ignored or passed over. In particular, Azusa Street would never have happened without Lucy Farrow and Julia Hutchins. Even the initial event itself was heavily made up by unnamed African American domestic workers. Te spread of Pentecostalism, and indeed its very forms of worship, have been heavily shaped by the Holiness Movement from which it came, and the African American women who carried and preserved the message. For our purposes here, we will mostly look at African American women who made the move from the Holiness tradition to Pentecostalism in the early days of the Pentecostal Movement.
Lucy Farrow (1851- February 21, 1911)
(Independent Holiness/ Azusa Street Mission)
Lucy was born a slave in 1851 in Norfolk, Virginia.101 Not much is really known about her life, but she was the niece of Frederick Douglass, one of the most well-known fgures of the abolitionist movement and one of the great African American leaders of his day. By 1871 she was married and living in Mississippi, but by 1890 she was located in Houston, Texas living as a widow with two surviving children from the seven she bore.
By 1905 Lucy Farrow was pastoring a Holiness mission church, when William Seymour attended her church. At the same time, Charles Parham began to preach in Houston speaking about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Lucy chose to go to Kansas for a couple months to attend Parham’s school and care for Parham’s children. She lef her church in the care of William Seymour while she was gone. It was while she was in Kansas at a meeting in Baxter Springs, Kansas, that Lucy became the frst recorded African American to speak in “tongues”.
When Lucy returned to her role as a pastor of her small Holiness church, she taught about the new experience to her congregation. Lucy encouraged William Seymour to attend Parham’s school in Houston. She introduced Parham and Seymour, and was a key part in helping Seymour attend Parham’s classes. Since the classes were not racially mixed, Seymour had to sit outside of the door and listen from there, instead of actually sitting in the same room with the white students. A visiting woman, by the name of Neely Terry, at this time heard Seymour, and she would be the
101 Much of this information comes from the work of Estrelda Alexander, in her book Te Women of Azusa Street, (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2005) especially chapter three, which is on Lucy Farrow.
one to mention his name to her pastor in Los Angeles to bring him there.
Once Seymour went to Los Angeles, he began to encounter some opposition and his own small house group, even afer much prayer, had not received the gif of “tongues”. Seymour asked for help from Parham, who sent Lucy Farrow and Joseph Warren to Los Angeles. Farrow was known as being gifed in laying on hands and praying for the gif of the Spirit. Seymour and his followers were meeting in a house in Bonnie Brae Street, and when Farrow arrived, revival broke out and the group began to speak in “tongues”. Lucy Farrow was essential in the Azusa Street Revival, and she remained there to help Seymour in his work as a preacher and teacher.
A few months afer Azusa Street, Lucy Farrow embarked on a preaching tour of Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia, and New York, before she headed to England and then Liberia, where she felt called for mission work. She remained there for seven months spreading the teachings of Pentecostalism. She returned to the United States and continued preaching and spreading the gif of tongues, but her work was always closely tied to the Azusa Street Mission. She died in 1911 at the age of 60 from intestinal tuberculosis.
Julia W. Hutchins (dates unknown)
(Independent Holiness/ Azusa Street Mission)
Little is known about the life story of Julia Hutchins before the Azusa Street Revival.102 What is known is that Julia Hutchins was the pastor of a small Holiness church in Los Angeles. She was saved in July of 1901 and at the time was a member of the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles. In July of 1903, Julia had the experience of sanctifcation and began teaching the Holiness idea of a second work of grace. As was typical of many Holiness fgures at this time, her denomination opposed the Holiness doctrines, and so she, along with eight other families of the same belief, were forced out of the church.
For a short time, Hutchins’ group worshipped at the Household of Faith Mission. Tis was a white congregation led by William Manley, and ultimately, due to racial prejudices, Julia and her group moved into a tent, where Julia Hutchins became the pastor. As winter approached the cold air became a challenge and the group moved into the house of one of their members, Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street. Te group continued to grow and one new member was Jennie Evans Moore, who lived across the street. As the group continued to expand, they ran out of space and moved to a building on the corner of Ninth and Santa Fe Street.
Tere seemed to be a level of disagreement in the congregation in 1906, although other sources have suggested Julia desired to respond to a call for missions in Africa, which she had noted from both her experience of salvation and sanctifcation. But whatever the source, Julia felt the need to invite a male fgure
102 Much of this information comes from the work of Estrelda Alexander, in her book Te Women of Azusa Street, (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2005) especially chapter two which is on Julia Hutchins.
to take over the responsibilities of pastor. Neely Terry, a member who had visited Lucy Farrow’s church in Houston, Texas and heard William Seymour preach, suggested they invite him. Hutchins sent the invitation, but Seymour was short of resources, despite feeling called to respond. Parham apparently tried to discourage Seymour, but ended up giving him money for his trip to Los Angeles.
In Seymour’s frst sermon to the small group, he taught on the idea of speaking in “tongues” as the frst sign of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Te Holiness congregation was appalled and locked him out of the church. Several of the congregation helped him out with a place to stay, and Richard and Ruth Asberry opened the doors of their house on Bonnie Brae Street so he could continue to teach. Julia Hutchins attempted to dissuade Seymour of his teachings by organizing a meeting with other Holiness leaders. While some of them rejected Seymour’s teaching, this meeting also allowed him to make contact with more sympathetic Holiness leaders in the area. Tis meeting provided a strong foundation from which to build his ministry when the Azusa Street Revival began. Seymour would marry Jennie Evans Moore, who was also a major fgure in the Azusa Street Mission. In many ways, Julia brought Seymour’s wife to an understanding of sanctifcation.
While the timing is not completely clear, Julia Hutchins became convinced of Seymour’s teaching, likely at the Azusa Street Revival, and she experienced the gif of speaking in “tongues”. Responding to this experience and her earlier calls to mission, Julia, along with her husband and niece, lef to be missionaries in Liberia in Africa in 1906. She held revival services along the way before leaving for England. In England, while speaking among African immigrants, the Hutchins family joined Lucy Farrow on the trip to Liberia. Her last known letters were from Monrovia in Liberia, and nothing else is currently known about her work.
Photo of Sarah A. King. (Image in the Public Domain)
Sarah A. King (1878-1971)
Sarah Ann (Mitchell) King and her husband Judge lived in the area around Lake Charles, Louisiana, and in that locale they experienced sanctifcation.103 Holiness teachings had arrived between 1903 and 1905 with a group of white Holiness people infuenced by Joseph B. Lynch. Lynch, along with Sarah Collins had created a Holiness group in 1892 in Virginia. Tey had emerged out of the Methodist Church due to a vision which held that salvation was impossible without sanctifcation. Tis odd group lived a communal type of lifestyle on houseboats based on the ideas of Noah and the ark. Tey were also accused of practicing a form of “free love”. Lynch, Collins, and two others were ultimately arrested, jailed, and fned. Lynch would die in 1900, but most of this was unknown by the African Americans infuenced in Louisiana. Ulysses S. King, Sr. (the son of Judge and Sarah King) wrote of this period, “Because of racism and segregation, white saints were not allowed to build or construct church buildings for worship. Blacks and whites were not allowed to assemble or worship together openly. Much of the white saints’ missionary work occurred in the cane or cotton felds where many blacks worked. Te white saints would come at night and stay secretly in the invited homes of a black family or minister, then leave before dawn to avoid being detected.”104 Judge, being a member of the Baptist Church, and Sarah, being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, lef their churches convinced of the teaching of sanctifcation and became a part of this group which was known as the Sanctifed Band, or Christ’s Sanctifed Holy Church. Afer learning more of the false teachings of Lynch, Judge
103 Much of this information comes from the ofcial website of the Christ Holy Sanctifed Church at https://www.chschurch.org/history/ and Ulysses S. King, Sr. Fountainhead: Te Beginning: A History of Christ Holy Sanctifed Church (Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2020).
104 King 2020: 2.
and Sarah returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South because it also held with the message of sanctifcation.
Sarah’s view of sanctifcation was not well understood by others in the church. Her son wrote, “Sarah was branded as a delusional religious fanatic. People called her weird and strange, accusing her and others of practicing voodoo or some form of witchcraf, which was common in the area. Tey said Satan had taken over her mind, all because strange and unusual things were happening that they could not explain. Miracles, signs, and wonders were being performed by the saints under the power and direction of the Holy Spirit.”105 Sarah’s husband, Judge, was not sanctifed at this time, and he also had his doubts. According to accounts, Sarah was one of the frst in her Methodist Church to speak in “tongues”. Her son noted from her journal where Sarah wrote, “On this particular Sunday I was invited as a guest speaker to minister at a mainline denominational church in Lake Charles, and while I was ministering to the saints the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit fell upon me, and I began to speak in unknown tongues.”106 Tis was part of the confusion of the others in the church, but with prayers Judge also experienced sanctifcation and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
According to the accounts, Sarah’s experiences with “tongues” happened before the Azusa Street Revival in 1906. Sarah and Judge King experienced hostility from their religious community during this time. Te area was visited by William Seymour who stopped by on his way from Azusa Street to Tennessee about 1908, where he visited the home of Sarah King’s mother, Sealy Mitchell. Seymour became interested in the stories of these experiences and wanted to meet them, and he shared the events of “tongues” in Los Angeles.
105 King 2020: 10.
106 King 2020: 74.
Initially they had been part of Christ’s Sanctifed Holy Church, founded by Joseph Lynch, but by 1910, the Kings had established the Christ Holy Sanctifed Church of America, Inc. with its core focus on the holiness doctrines of sanctifcation and abstinence from worldly pleasures. Local Baptists had not been sympathetic, as Ulysses King, Sr. records from his mother’s journal, “…we had such a time with the Baptists. Tey turned us out of the church and killed some of the saints. We had to pray and escape for our lives. We had to go and build brush arbors, (worship) in houses, on porches, and wherever we could…”107 However, supporters in the Methodist Church helped them clean and set up in an abandoned building and gave them new Bibles. Animosity met their success, but one Methodist elder, T.D. McAlister who was sent to examine them, found no fault and actually ordained Judge and Sarah in 1910.
Te early church was a struggle for many reasons. Lynch and his group had opposed music in the church and also the sacraments, including baptism. It took time for the Kings to help shape the disciplines of their new group, even though they kept a similar name and held close to the ideas of sanctifcation. As rural evangelists and missionaries, the Kings travelled around Louisiana in those days, going to lumber camps and other areas. Teir son noted, “Every evening, they would preach outdoors under a large oak tree, once people came home from working in the felds. Tere were no churches, buildings, or facilities they could use, or were permitted to use, to hold worship services. In some places, brush or hush arbors were made from placing a bunch of tree limbs and branches together to form a simple shelter for worship.”108 With some advice from McAlister and others, the Kings formally incorporated their church in 1910 as Christ Holy Sanctifed Church
107 King 2020: 23.
108 King 2020: 30.
in the small town of Keatchie, Louisiana. By 1914, 196 black and white delegates attended the frst convention of the church in that same town. Opposition still was a constant threat. Ulysses King Sr. wrote,
On one occasion, Judge was threatened, mauled, and beaten with sticks and clubs by an angry mob of dissenting and rebellious people right in the front yard of his home in the southeast area of Shreveport. He was severely beaten in the head with clubs that had nails inserted in them. Afer they fnished beating him, the mob lef Judge on the ground for dead. Sarah was in the house and all she could do was listen and watch in fear and horror, while her husband was being physically abused. She was helpless and could not come to his aid. Afer his attackers lef, she rushed to his side. Barely able to stand, she assisted her husband into the house where she tenderly cleaned and bathed his wound. Tey did not have money or resources for doctors or medical care. Teir physician was Jesus, and He would heal, strengthen, and care for her husband, and praise God, He did!109
Judge King would preach and Sarah would teach, and they began to baptize, practice Holy Communion, and the sacrament of “foot-washing”. Sarah had received a ninth-grade education, and seeing the need for education among the African American community, she established a school in Louisiana on 20 acres given by a neighbor, Jim Murray, and taught African American children basic education. She was able to get money for this endeavor from the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Home and Foreign Missions Department, and so, she also set up a Home Missionary Department among the women she gathered around her.
109 King 2020: 58.
At some time afer 1910, C.H. Mason (Founder of the Church of God in Christ (Memphis) and C.P. Jones (Founder of the Church of God in Christ (Holiness)) heard about the Kings’ work and reached out to them. Judge King joined them from 19141915 as they preached in Louisiana, East Texas, and Mississippi. Te family moved into West Texas around 1916-1917, and fnally out to California in 1918, planting churches along the way. Tis was partly in response to the Great Migration, as African Americans lef the rural South in search of work and a better life in the urban areas. Despite success in Los Angeles, Judge King chose not to open churches due to positive relationships with the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God in Christ (Holiness), and the Angelus Temple Foursquare Church. As they planted churches in other areas, they encountered opposition. Teir church in Oroville, California was burned by arsonists, but Judge and Sarah King continued to move and plant churches in Fresno, San Francisco, and Oakland. Teir son wrote, “With my mother faithfully by his side, her primary role was to be a wife and mother. She did no secular work outside the home, however, it is safe to say that her second job was the church. Without her the home and ministry would never have succeeded. She kept us safe, fed and nurtured. Whenever and wherever we went to church, we were always right by her side. When she was called upon to speak at church, she taught us how to watch out and care for one another in her absence.”110
Sarah and Judge King would have six children: Arthur, Jay P., Judge Jr., Ulysses, Saunders, and Daisy.
Te Christ Holy Sanctifed Church continued to grow through evangelistic outreach, including the work of women such as Mother A. L. Money. Conventions were held in Louisiana and later Jasper, Texas to keep the churches together. Te death of Bishop Judge King in 1945 led to leadership struggles, but the Kings’ son, Ulysses S.
110 King 2020: 42.
King, Sr. became the new senior bishop, and new guidelines for the church were developed with a large input from women including Sarah King, A.L. Money, Sister Lucille Shrock, Sister Ruth Jones, and Sister Marie Walton. Rev. Mrs. Lucille Shock would become the frst female superintendent of the church. Ulysses King Sr. also noted that one of his own mentors was Mother Emma Cotton from the Church of God in Christ, who was a protégé of Amiee Semple McPherson.111 Emma Cotton and her husband Henry had been part of the original Azusa Street outpouring. Emma Cotton was yet another African American woman who played a major role in planting churches and helping teach emerging leaders such as Judge and Sarah King.
Mother Sarah King was an active part of the ministry team alongside of her husband, and she would also preach and evangelize. Accounts refer to how local prejudice against the Pentecostal preaching of the Kings led to one person entering a service and shooting Sarah King as she was leading worship. According to the story, her husband continued to preach, and she would recover fully from the shooting, although the bullets remained in her body. By some accounts, Sarah would say, “When I get to Heaven, I’m going to present these bullets in my body to Jesus and I’m going to say to Him that I took these bullets for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Ten she would look around at the people she was talking to and add, “What are you going to present to Jesus when you stand before Him?”
111 King 2020: 93.
in the author’s collection)
Photo of Reatha and Leatha Morris. (Image
Reatha and Leatha Morris: The Singing Twins (Church of God in Christ- Memphis)
Mother Reatha Morris Herndon (October 11, 1899-March 31, 2005)
Mother Leatha Morris Tucker (October 11, 1899-December 10, 1976)
One of the more well-known African American women of the Pentecostal Movement is Mother Lizzie Robinson of the Church of God in Christ. Chosen as the General Overseer of Women’s Work in 1911 by founder Charles Mason, Mother Robinson had entered the Holiness tradition through a white American Baptist missionary named Joanna Patterson Moore, who had been sanctifed at a Methodist Camp Meeting. While Mother Robinson’s story is more widely written about, she developed a method of planting churches which involved sending out women evangelists, who would preach in cities and towns, and when they had enough people to found a church, they would write back to Memphis and request a male preacher be sent to pastor the church. Two of these women were twins, Reatha and Leatha Morris.112
Born most likely October 11, 1899 (they appear in the 1900 census as being one-year old children, despite ofen having a given birthdate of October 11, 1900), Reatha and Leatha were the youngest children of John and Sarah Morris. John and Sarah had been born into slavery in Tennessee, but with freedom relocated to Oklahoma, where John ultimately became a pastor in the National Baptist Convention of the U.S.A. While Leatha was converted about 1911 and Reatha in 1913, the major spiritual event in the family would occur on Saturday, June 26, 1915. One of the older boys,
112 Much of this section comes from “Women Church Planters in the Early Work of Te Church of God in Christ: Te Case of the Singing Twins, Reatha and Leatha Morris” by Robert Danielson. Te Asbury Journal 76(1): 61-81 (Spring 2021).
Tomas, had become ill and the family gathered around his bed to pray. One of the sisters, Lula, began to pray and soon turned into praying in “tongues”. Before long all 16 people in the house were baptized with the Holy Spirit and praying in unknown languages. Reatha relayed the story in her own words to Doris Sims,
Tey tells me we were hoopin, hollerin, shouting, going on and the whole neighborhood got on fre. Tey said someone called the fre department ‘cause they said, “ Tere’s a ball of fre about the size of a washtub right over their house.”
Tey said they thought the house was on fre. Tey thought the house was on fre! Te fre department came and they said they found out that there was nothing but the Holy Ghost that had fallen there and the whole house was on fre. It was on Holy Ghost fre.113
John Henry Morris and the rest of the family were pushed out of the Baptist Church because of their acceptance of the doctrine of sanctifcation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Rev. Morris formed a small group called the Church of God in Christ in Enid, Oklahoma. He passed away in 1917 and the church would merge with the Memphis-based Church of God in Christ in 1921. Tis group would split away from the Memphis church in 1925 to become the Free Church of God in Christ under one of John Morris’ sons, J.E. (James Eugene) Morris, who served as Bishop until his death on October 17, 1945, when his brother E.F. (Ernest Fredrick) Morris (1890-1968) would take up the reigns of Bishop, only to be followed by a third brother, Bishop C.E. (Clarence Eugene) Morris until his death in 1989. Te church changed its name to the Full Gospel Pentecostal Missionary Association. Under E.F. Morris, the
113 Roots Out of Dry Ground: Te Mother Reatha Herndon Story by Doris J. Sims. (Brooklyn, NY: Welstar Publications) (2014): 52-53.
church became part of the International Federation of Pentecostal Churches in 1934.
Yet, before the development of the Morris family’s church splits, sisters Reatha and Leatha had joined the Memphis-based Church of God in Christ in 1919, and began their evangelistic work under the direction of Mother Lizzie Robinson. Despite this connection, the twins continued to also hold revivals and other evangelistic work with their brothers throughout their life. Mother Robinson had started her work in 1916 with 32 women, so Reatha and Leatha joined these evangelistic women very early in the project, and they would become known as the “Singing Twins”. With the experience they gained with their father and brothers, the twins were prepared to do the work of planting churches for COGIC. Reatha explained their work,
We helped to preach out these churches. When we frst started, we didn’t go among these churches expecting to give no message- that wasn’t it.
Te people would call it preaching- we were not that. What we did was work around the altar. We’d get people around the altar- 15 or 20- sometime on a long bench, called a Mourner’s Bench.
We’d put them people on that Mourner’s Bench and then we’d get over those people, casting out devils, praying for them and blessing them. Every once in a while, somebody would jump up and just shout for joy that had got completely delivered. We would let them help us pray for the others. Tat’s how we got started. Sometimes in the meeting there would be 15 or 20 people who would get saved. Most of them would be flled with the Holy Ghost.114
114 Sims 2014: 88-90.
From these early eforts, the twins then moved out into street preaching. While Reatha played the guitar and Leatha the tambourine or mandolin, the pair would walk along the streets and gather a crowd Afer moving them into a tent or rented store front, they would preach to the crowd. Tese two women are credited for planting 75 COGIC churches in the United States in some of the major cities including San Francisco, St. Paul, Bufalo, New York City, St. Louis, Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.
In a revival conducted in Chicago, Reatha brought over 300 people to Christ in a 30-day period. Due to cold weather, Reatha relocated the revival to an old Jewish Synagogue that had been purchased in town. Male leaders accused Reatha of over-stepping her bounds and “pastoring a church”, since the normal process was to contact Memphis for a male pastor to be sent. Reatha responded to Bishop Roberts on hearing this accusation, “I don’t call it a church. I call it the evangelistic meeting and I’m still carrying on a meeting, and souls are being saved. People getting saved, all kinds of people.” Bishop Roberts did not take any action and in fact supported Reatha’s ongoing work in Chicago.
Tis was not the only time Reatha responded to these types of accusations. Founding Bishop Mason asked Reatha to hold a revival in his church in Pittsburgh. People accused her of “preaching” instead of the “teaching” which women were permitted by church leaders. Reatha responded referring to the story of Balaam in the Old Testament (Numbers 22:21-39), “We are doing what the mule did. God touched the mule and had him speak in a human voice to the prophet. God used the mule to bring the prophet to repentance. God is using me and my sister to bring sinners back to God, and you can call it what you want to call it.”115
115 Sims 2014: 112-113.
Evangelistic Advertisement for Reatha and Leatha Morris. (Item in the author’s collection)
Photo of Reatha Morris Preaching. (Image in the author’s collection)
Leatha would marry Columbus Chapman, a healer and preacher in Detroit, in 1927, but they would divorce in 1936 over his infdelity. She was remarried to Jaddie T. Tucker in Los Angeles in 1967, but never had any children. Mother Leatha Morris Chapman Tucker would work as a leader and organizer of the Department of Women in COGIC until her death on December 10, 1976.
Reatha also married a pastor, Tomas Commodore Herndon in 1927. She had a daughter, Reatha Lee Herndon in 1928 when Rev. Herndon was a pastor in Chicago Heights. Tey moved to Los Angeles in 1929 and a son, Robert Morris Herndon was born in 1930. Te couple divorced due to Rev. Herndon’s problems with alcohol and he died in 1935 from a cerebral hemorrhage. While Reatha was away from home conducting a revival with Leatha in 1933, the three-year-old Robert died from meningitis. Mother Dr. Reatha D. Morris Herndon was appointed President of the National Women’s Evangelistic Board in 1951, and then became the Elect Lady of the Department of Evangelism for COGIC. Her daughter, Reatha Lee died from breast cancer around 1973. In January of 2001, Reatha was named the Emeritus Elect Lady of the Department of Evangelism and she passed away on March 31, 2005 at the age of 104 years old.
Te Church of God in Christ still does not permit women to serve as pastors, but Reatha and Leatha Morris represent only a small fraction of the workers sent out by Mother Lizzie Robinson. Given that the “Singing Twins” planted 75 churches in major metropolitan areas of the United States, one can only wonder what all of the other women workers (including the frst 32 which were named in 1916) accomplished in the time of their ministries. Te reality is that it is likely true that the majority of COGIC churches in the United States were planted by African American women evangelists, even if they remain unrecognized. Te largest
Pentecostal denomination and the fourth largest denomination in the United States, owes its place to African American women like Reatha and Leatha Morris.
Pentecostalism
In general, this exhibit has aimed to show the important roles played by African American women in the understanding of sanctifcation and holiness. Te women listed so far, clearly grew up in a holiness-centered understanding of the faith, and by 1910-1920 many of them moved into the growing Pentecostal Movement. African American women continued to play a major role in Pentecostalism, although that is a bit outside of the scope of this exhibit. Pentecostalism, which Pentecostal historians advocate began with William Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 was clearly a product of this interplay of dynamics between African Americans and the theology of the Holiness Movement. It would not be until the 1920s that Pentecostalism would really be seen and understood as separate from its Holiness roots. Tis is why early Pentecostals such as Lucy Farrow, Sarah King, Julia Hutchins, and Reatha and Leatha Morris are included in this exhibit. It is highly likely that they identifed more as Holiness women (at least at the start of their ministries), than Pentecostal women.
However, the story of the infuence of African American women in this tradition does not end with the Holiness Movement, but merges into the story of African American women in the Pentecostal Movement as well. Te personal experiences of sanctifcation and empowerment of their right to preach, seen in Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Julia Foote, and Amanda Smith continued into Pentecostalism. Te leadership and church planting abilities of Roxy Turner, Emma Elizabeth Craig, Sarah King, Irene Blyden Taylor, Julia M. Hutchins, Priscilla Wimbush, the women Bishops of the Mount Zion Holy Church of America, and Reatha and Leatha Morris continued into Pentecostalism. Te social concerns of Emma Ray and Eliza Suggs and the exuberant worship of Susan
Fogg continued into Pentecostalism. All of this can be seen in the example of Elder Lucy Turner Smith (January 14, 1875-June 18, 1952). Te culmination of many of these themes show in the photography of Russell Lee (1903-1986) who took photos of Smith’s church in April of 1941, as part of the Library of Congress’ Farm Security Administration/ Ofce of War Information Photograph Collection.
(Image taken by Russell Lee and part of the collections of the Library of Congress. Image in the Public Domain)
Photo of Lucy Turner Smith.
Lucy Smith (January 14, 1875 - June 18, 1952)
(All Nations Pentecostal Church)
Lucy Smith was one of the frst African American women to head a major church in Chicago.116 But her work extended far beyond just that claim to fame. Wallace D. Best noted, Smith assumed the role of ‘Overseer’ of an entire General Conference of churches beginning in the 1920s, of which her All Nations Pentecostal Church became the ‘mother church.’ She pioneered religious radio, becoming the frst African American minister in the Midwest to broadcast live worship over the airwaves. Her Glorious Church of the Air reached as far as Mexico and became the means by which many black Chicagoans frst heard the voices of premier gospel artists such as Mahalia Jackson and Tomas Dorsey. Committed to the Pentecostal practice of faith healing, Smith staged weekly healing services, which became the staple of black Chicago nightlife.117
Lucinda Madden was born in Woodstock, Georgia on January 14, 1875 in a rough one-room log cabin on a plantation. Lucy married William Smith in 1896 and moved to a farm, where she would have nine children before William abandoned the family (although he rejoined the family later in Chicago). Lucy supported the children by taking in sewing, and afer living in Athens and Atlanta, she took her family north to Chicago in 1910 as part of the Great Migration. Raised Baptist, it was in Chicago that Lucy was exposed to Pentecostalism at Stone Church, which was racially
116 Much of this information comes from Wallace D. Best, Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago 1915-1952. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ (2005), especially chapter six, “A Woman’s World, an Urban World”: 147-180.
117 Best 2005: 150.
mixed. Lucy Smith soon became convinced she had a gif as a faith healer.
Lucy Smith started a prayer band with two other women in 1916, which became a tent-mission known as All Nations Pentecostal Church in 1918. In December of 1926 the church building was fnished at 3716 Langley Avenue and became the frst church ever built by a woman pastor in Chicago. By the 1930s the church had around 5,000 members. All Nations was instrumental in social outreach with food and clothing during the Great Depression, and in 1933 it began a radio program called the “Glorious Church of the Air”, which was the frst live worship program from an African American church. Lucy Smith’s fame as a faith healer increased, with her ultimately claiming to have healed over 200,000 people.
Te healing services were a major part of Lucy Smith’s ministry. As Best describes, “By all accounts, Wednesday night healing services began around 8:00 P.M. Te choir of about one hundred mostly female voices sang about four songs, each ‘a little more infectious than the last,’ accompanied by piano and drum. Afer a brief message by Smith, those who had come for healing were called forward, where Smith and her all-female ‘co-workers,’ robed in white attended to them, rubbing ailing spots with olive oil and praying audibly. As in most Pentecostal worship, the emotional tone of the services escalated to the point of frenzy.”118 Lucy Smith focused her services to be interracial, but she also promoted a leadership which was all female, with herself as the main pastor and Overseer. In particular, Rebecca Porter was the main preacher because of her talents in that area. Studies done of the church in the 1930s showed that the majority of the congregation were married women between the ages of 50 and 60 who worked in domestic service.
118 Best 2005: 172.
of Lucy Turner Smith leading worship. (Image taken by Russell Lee and part of the collections of the Library of Congress. Image in the Public Domain)
Photo
Lucy Smith’s use of radio was also a possible draw for the All Nations Pentecostal Church. African American migration to the northern cities was strong in the Depression, and many had lower rates of literacy. By being able to hear Smith on the radio, people felt a connection and those who migrated were drawn to the church. In addition, the music Lucy Smith used was considered to have a lot of the elements of Jazz, which was popular with the African American audience. With the church’s focus on healing and social outreach with food and clothes, All Nations likely played a key part of life for many recent migrants from the rural South.
Elder Lucy Smith became the frst African American woman to lead a major congregation in Chicago. Her congregation was interracial and crossed economic lines. When Elder Lucy Smith died on June 18, 1952 an estimated 60,000 people paid their respects. Leadership of All Nations Pentecostal Church went to Lucy’s daughter, Ardella Smith, although she ended up leaving afer a contentious split in the church.
Photo of the mostly female congregation at All Nations.
(Image taken by Russell Lee and part of the collections of the Library of Congress. Image in the Public Domain)
Conclusion
Te teaching of sanctifcation within the Holiness tradition provided a key pathway for bringing African American women into leadership positions within the church. Beginning with the struggle of African American women seeking the chance to preach within Methodist circles, as with Old Elizabeth, Jarena Lee and Zilpha Elaw, African American women entered larger spaces of public speaking such a camp-meetings with women like Julia Foote and Amanda Smith, speaking even to interracial groups. As the Holiness message faced opposition within traditional Methodist groups, African American women became involved in Holiness ofshoots. Some like Emma Ray and Eliza Suggs became involved in social uplif of the African American community through temperance work and slum ministries with the Free Methodist Church. Others, like Pricilla Wimbush founded African American institutions like camp meeting associations. Women such as Roxy Turner, Emma Elizabeth Craig and Sarah King became involved in forming new African American denominations. Susan Fogg would help infuence Holiness worship styles in radical groups like the Metropolitan Church Association, and a number would become involved in missionary work such as Irene Blyden Taylor, Amanda Smith, Lucy Farrow, and Julia Hutchins.
Evangelistic work was done by most of the women mentioned in this book, but church planting reaches new heights through the work of Reatha and Leatha Morris. Te equality and leadership abilities of African American women are highlighted through the women bishops of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America
and Lucy Turner Smith with her group of women leaders and the innovative use of radio to spread her message. Te growth of the Pentecostal Movement itself would have been impossible without Lucy Farrow and Julia Hutchins to help and support William Seymour in the Azusa Street Mission.
Tere is a rich, ofen unrecorded or understudied history of African American women within the church. Understanding its source in the theology of sanctifcation and its growth through the Holiness Movement is a vital part of understanding how African American women leaders of today are grounded in the Mothers who preceded them. It is a heritage to be proud of, to emulate, and to empower African American women in the church right now and for the future. Tese women, and many others around us are truly “God’s image carved in Ebony.”
Work Cited
Primary Sources
Andrews, William L., ed.
1986 Sisters of the Spirit: Tree Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press. Tis work contains the most easily accessible copies of the writings of Jarena Lee and Zilpha Elaw, along with a reprint of Julia Foote’s autobiography.
Anonymous
1863 Memoir of Old Elizabeth, A Coloured Woman. Philadelphia, PA: Collins.
Davis, Mrs. Katie
2007 Zion’s Hill at West Middlesex. Reprint. Originally published by Christian Triumph Press (Corpus Christi, TX). Prestonburg, KY: Reformation Publishers. Tis book is in the primary source section since it contains reprinted frst-hand accounts of Priscilla Wimbush and others from her early Holiness group.
Elaw, Zilpha
1846 Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw, An American Female of Colour; Together with Some Account of the Great Religious Revivals in America. London, UK: Zilpha Elaw.
Foote, Julia A. J.
1879 A Brand Plucked From the Fire: An Autobiographical Sketch. Cleveland, OH: Julia Foote. Free electronic access at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu frstfruitsheritagematerial/169/
King, Ulysses S., Sr.
2020 Fountainhead: Te Beginning: A History of Christ Holy Sanctifed Church. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press. I am placing this book in with primary sources, since Bishop King, the son of Sarah and Judge King, includes a short transcription of Sarah King’s own journal as well as personal memories of his own.
Lee, Jarena
1836 Te Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel. Philadelphia, PA: Jarena Lee.
Ray, Emma
1926 Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed: Autobiography of Mr. and Mrs. L.P. Ray. Chicago, IL: Te Free Methodist Publishing House.
Sims, Doris J.
2014 Roots Out of Dry Ground: Te Mother Reatha Herndon Story. Brooklyn, NY: Welstar Publications. I am counting this book as a primary source, since it mostly contains actual transcripts of taped interviews with Mother Herndon which have been transcribed and for the most part, not re-written.
Smith, Mrs. Amanda
1893 An Autobiography: Te Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist: Containing an Account of her Life Work of Faith, and Her Travels in
America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa, as an Independent Missionary. Chicago, IL: Meyer and Brother.
Free electronic access at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ frstfruitsheritagematerial/139/
Suggs, Eliza
1906 Shadow and Sunshine. Omaha, NB: Eliza Suggs.
Taylor, Rev. Marshall W.
1887 Te Life, Travels, Labors, and Helpers of Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Famous Negro Missionary Evangelist. Cincinnati, OH: Cranston and Stowe.
Free electronic access at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ frstfruitsheritagematerial/158/
Secondary Sources
Alexander, Estrelda
2005 Te Women of Azusa Street. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press.
Best, Wallace D.
2005 Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago 1915-1952. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, especially chapter six, “A Woman’s World, an Urban World,” which contains information on Lucy Turner Smith.
Bragg, Cynthia B.
2018 “Music, Ministry, and Mission: Sheroes in the Church of God in Christ.” Journal of the Interdenominational Teological Center 46(Fall): 73-96.
Butler, Anthea
2004 “Church Mothers and Migration in the Church of God in Christ.” Chapter seven in Religion in the American South: Protestants and Others in History and Culture, edited by Beth Barton Schweiger and Donald G. Matthews (Chapel Hill, NC: Te University of North Carolina Press): 195-218.
2007 Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctifed World. Chapel Hill, NC: Te University of North Carolina Press.
Church, H. Carlyle, Jr.
1996 “ Te Accommodation and Liberation of Women in the Church of God in Christ.” Te Journal of Religious Tought 55/53(2/1):77-90.
Danielson, Robert
2021 “Women Church Planters in the Early Work of Te Church of God in Christ: Te Case of the Singing Twins, Reatha and Leatha Morris.” Te Asbury Journal (Spring) 76(1): 61-81.
2025 “Irene Blyden Taylor: God’s Apostle to Nevis.” Te Asbury Journal (Spring). Forthcoming.
2025 “Susan Fogg: An African American Woman in the Radical Holiness Movement.” Te Asbury Journal (Fall). Forthcoming.
2026? “African American Woman and the Holiness Movement: Roxy Turner and the Power Churches of Central Kentucky.” In Process.
Gilkes, Cheryl Townsend
2001 “If it Wasn’t for the Women—”: Black Women’s Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
1985 “’Together and in Harness’: Women’s Traditions in the Sanctifed Church.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10(4): 678-699.
Goodson, Glenda Williams
2017 “Church of God in Christ Leader-Activists: Major Progenitors of African American Pentecostal Female Leadership.” Journal of the International Teological Center 44(Fall):19-36.
Gregory, Chester W.
1986 Te History of the United Holy Church of America, Inc. 18861986. Gateway Press, Inc.: Baltimore, MD.
Hurbert, Susan J.
1998 “Testimony and Prophecy in the Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee. “Journal of Religious Tought, 54/54(2):45-52.
Jones, Charles Edwin
1987 Black Holiness: A Guide to the Study of Black Participation in Wesleyan Perfectionist and Glossolalic Pentecostal Movements. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Knight, Frederick
2017 “ Te Many Names for Jarena Lee.” Te Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 141 (1) (January): 59-68.
Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc.
2024 Te Bishops: Te Mount Sinai Holy Church of America Celebrates Teir Former Leaders. Great Leaders from our Past. Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc.
2024 Te Churches of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. Te 99th Holy Convocation Centennial Commemorative Journal, volume one (revised). Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc.
Riggs, Marcia
1997 Can I Get a Witness?: Prophetic Religious Voices of African American Women: An Anthology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Saunders, Cheryl J.
1996 Saints in Exile: Te Holiness-Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion and Culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Stanley, Susie C.
2002 Holy Boldness: Women Preachers’ Autobiographies and the Sanctifed Self. Knoxville, TN: Te University of Tennessee Press.
Turner, William Clair, Jr.
1984 Te United Holy Church of America: A Study in Black Pentecostalism. Ph.D. Dissertation from Duke University.
Suggested Additional Reading
Alexander, Estrelda
2011 Black Fire: One hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism. Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
2013 Black Fire Reader: A Documentary Resource on African American Pentecostalism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
Casselberry, Judith
2017 Te Labor of Faith: Gender and Power in Black Apostolic Pentecostalism. Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press.
Day, Keri
2022 Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging. Stanford University Press.
Dodson, Jualynne E.
2002 Engendering Church: Women, Power and A.M.E. Church. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefeld.
DuPree, Sherry Sherrod, ed.
1989 Biographical Dictionary of African-American, HolinessPentecostals, 1880-1990. Washington, D.C.: Middle Atlantic Regional Press.
Ferguson, Moira
1993 Hart Sisters: Early African Caribbean Writers, Evangelicals, and Radicals. University of Nebraska Press.
Frederick, Marla
2015 Colored Television: American Religion Gone Global. Stanford University Press.
2003 Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith. University of California Press.
Nelson, Timothy Jon
2005 Every Time I Feel the Spirit: Religious Experience and Ritual in an African American Church. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Pierce, Yolanda
2021 In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit. Broadleaf Books.
Tomas, Joseph L.
2014 Perfect Harmony: Interracial Churches in Early HolinessPentecostalism 1880-1909. Emeth Press.
Wiggins, Daphne C.
2005 Righteous Content: Black Women’s Perspectives of Church and Faith. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Yong, Amos and Estrelda Y. Alexander
2011 Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture. NYU Press.
This book examines the lives of over twenty African American women who have been involved in the history of the Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States. The title, “God’s Image Carved in Ebony,” comes from a description of Amanda Berry Smith, one of the most well-known of these women, but it can be used to describe all of these women, as well as the many unknown or unrecorded African American women who have been involved in leading the Church.
This particular group of women was empowered through the Holiness teaching of sanctifcation, which became later defned as the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This doctrine allowed for people on the margins to better view themselves as people called by God into ministry, and thus fght against barriers of gender and race. These women went on to preach, evangelize, go into missions, found denominations, establish Pentecostalism, and plant churches by the hundreds. Their witness is inspiring, not only because of the barriers they overcame, but also from the work they accomplished.
Robert A. Danielson is the Director of Strategic Collections in the library of Asbury Theological Seminary, where he also teaches Missional Formation and World Religions. He has done mission work in the People’s Republic of China and in Central America.
