The Black Church: African American Pentecostalism & Its Cultural Importance
By: Ian L. Courts
One of the most enduring institutions in Black America is the Black Church, and one of its most durable expressions is the Black Pentecostal-Holiness expression. I was raised within the Black Pentecostal-Holiness expression, specifically the United Holy Church of America, the oldest Black American Pentecostal-Holiness organization, established in Method, North Carolina, in 1886. This article aims to highlight the Black Pentecostal church’s role in shaping its members’ cultural and social progress through the 19th and 20th centuries and its significance today.
19th Century’s Latter Rain & Wesleyan Holiness Roots
The emergence of the Holiness movement in the 1880s and the preaching of “entire sanctification” taken from John Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection was a new religious experience that offered a spark of spiritual revival for working-class and dispossessed white and Black Americans. Entire sanctification was interpreted as a state of sinless perfection and freedom from willful sin. Those who converted and experienced the “second blessing” of entire sanctification, as they called it, saw themselves as more “spiritual” and higher than those who had not experienced their “second blessing.” Many were expelled from or voluntarily left their traditional fellowships in Methodist and Baptist churches. Thus, they formed their own organizations, such as the Church of God in 1890, the Church of Nazarene in 1908, and the Fire Baptized Holiness Church in 1898, which are a few of the many organized. These new and distinctly “Holiness” churches were predominantly white and comprised mainly of the working class and poor. The “sanctified” experience gave them a sense of pride and social distinction. Although many were poor, immigrants, and discriminated they had a sense of hope in the faith that set them apart and empowered through the Holy Spirit of Christianity.
Before the Azusa Street revival, traditionally recognized as the advent of the American Pentecostal movement, there was the Latter Rain Movement of the late 19th Century, also known as the Third Great Awakening of American revivalism, primarily in North Carolina and Virginia. During this Latter Rain movement, revivalist fervor broke out among many impoverished, rural, and Black American citizens within the state. This revivalist fervor manifested in spiritual experiences such as speaking in tongues, ecstatic praise, emotionalism, and emphasis on sanctification; from this revival, two prominent Black Holiness churches, the United Holy Church of America (1886) and the Church of God in Christ (1897) were formed.
Azusa Street Revival
One of early American Pentecostalism’s significant events began in an abandoned stable house on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906 — the movement’s humble beginnings are parallels to the lives of many of its first adherents. Most Early Pentecostals came from the white working class in urban and rural areas. These people, most immigrants or descendants of immigrants, faced social discrimination and economic hardships. Those that lived in cities suffered from terrible factory and textile industry working conditions and earned low wages. Urban housing and living conditions were overcrowded, unsanitary, and harsh.
The vast majority of early Pentecostals converted from traditional Methodist and Baptist churches, which historically housed the poor and oppressed of society, yet with the growth in numbers and prominence of its clergy and laity, the poor and underclass were virtually pushed out and unwelcomed. The rural areas of the United States were still very rustic and were not as industrialized as the urban centers of America, and living conditions were just as unbearable. Farming, mining, and husbandry were the vocations of the rural areas, and most were involved in one or more of these occupations. Even in the rural churches, the free expressions of joy and emotion were abandoned for a more ritualistic and intellectual religion than their urban counterparts. Many lost faith in American Evangelicalism and Reformed Religion.
The global spearhead of the Pentecostal movement was an African American Holiness minister by the name of William Seymour. William Seymour was born in 1870, the son of formerly enslaved people in Louisiana. William Seymour, one of the initiators of the Early Pentecostal movement, helped shape its character and style, which immolated much of his experiences and beliefs as an African American male Protestant in the Reconstruction and early Jim Crow eras. “Azusa Street and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories, “and work themselves into mad excitement in their peculiar zeal. Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers, who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication. They claim to have the ‘gift of tongues’ and be able to understand the babel.” (Los Angeles Times 1906).
The phenomena of glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, expressive praise, and spiritual dancing, which many participated in within the early Pentecostal movement, were parallels to practices within the slave churches of America. These manifestations were not unusual to the African American Pentecostals and were practiced by many Black Methodist and Baptist churches. The reception of these practices by their white Pentecostal brethren was incredibly encouraging to the African American adherents of the movement. “Ecstatic speech, free dancing, and emphasis on a Spirit deity are the marks of Pentecostalism and its African roots.” the preceding quote is taken from William Turner’s book A Study in Black Holiness Pentecostalism: The United Holy Church of America.
The Pentecostal experience of “entire sanctification,” “holiness,” and Spirit-baptism were regarded as badges of honor and Christian prestige to the African Americans who experienced them. Thus, through shared experience or what they called “Unity of the Spirit,” the early years of the Pentecostal movement fostered a sense of racial harmony amongst its adherents. “In 1906, when there were more lynchings of black men than in any other year of America’s history, Seymour led an interracial worship service. At Azusa Street, there were no preferences for age, gender, or race. One worshipper [Frank Bartleman] said, “The blood of Jesus washed the color line away.” This quote was taken from the Los Angeles Times on the Azusa Street Revival. Churches such as the Church of God In Christ in 1897, the United Holy Church of America (est. 1886), the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in 1924, and the Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas are predominately African American Pentecostal organization established in this era. The spiritual freedom and social relevancy to the early Pentecostal movement’s marginalized society led to the organizations’ leadership displaying this shift.
The Role of Women
Women contributed significantly to the growth of African American Pentecostalism, and that fact remains true today. Women played pivotal roles as missionaries, evangelists, faithful members, and even pastors of hundreds of churches and missions nationwide.
Women, such as Evangelist Emma Elizabeth Craig of the United Holy Church, founded 16 churches and held hundreds of revivals and prayer meetings across the country with her husband and solo. Other notable women, such as Maria Woodworth Etter, Amanda Berry Smith, and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Woods Robinson, were early Pentecostal women serving in lay ministerial roles such as evangelists and missionaries. Aimee Semple McPherson and Bishop Ida Robinson of Mount Sinai Holy Churches of America were women who not only served as lay ministers but also established churches and Pentecostal organizations that, in effect, ordained other male and female ministers and established several churches. The aspects of ordination and credentialing were of little importance to early Pentecostalism. Thus, the restraints held on women by the more traditional denominations were loosed by the open ministry of the Pentecostals.
In 1925, according to the ‘Enrichment Journal’s Article “History of Women in the Pentecostal Movement,” 32% of the ordained personnel in the Church of God were women compared to the percentage of 20 in the Pentecostal Church of Nazarene in 1908. The Church of God 1939 Ministerial Publication states, “the prevalence of women preachers is a fair measure of the spirituality of a church, a country, or an age. As the church grows more apostolic and deeply spiritual, women preachers and workers abound in that church; as it grows more worldly and cold, women’s ministry is despised and gradually ceases altogether.” The preceding quote highlights the view of early Pentecostals on the issue of Women in ministry. There were Pentecostal organizations, though, that recognized women’s ministry calling but barred their ordination. The Church of God In Christ, led by Charles Harrison Mason, licensed women missionaries, evangelists, and mothers but refused them ordination and pastorships. The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith licensed women missionaries but barred them from serving in ordained ministry. The United Holy Church of America, the oldest African American Pentecostal organization, in its early years allowed the ordination and licensing of women as missionaries, pastoral evangelists, evangelists, and reverends, yet they could not be consecrated to the bishopric or acknowledged as elders but instead referred to as a “pastoral evangelists.” The UHCA’s stance on women ministers changed throughout the 20th century, eventually resulting in the consecration of its first woman bishop in the 1990s.
Whether formally ordained or recognized, women played a significant role in Black Pentecostalism, one that continues to this day.
Education and Literacy
Pentecostalism as a whole, even into the modern day, has been heavily criticized for being anti-intellectual. In many instances, especially within early Pentecostalism, that was the case. However, education and literacy were essential to many African American Pentecostal organizations.
The United Holy Church encouraged its members, both young and old, to pursue education and created bible training institutes that provided a level of literacy via bible knowledge for largely rural and southern Black Americans who did not have pervasive access to traditional education. Many of the UHCA’s early leaders, both men and women, were college-educated, whether via historically Black colleges and universities or even local bible colleges and seminaries. The UHCA even created the United Christian Institute and sought funds from its members to purchase a campus to house the institute, an institution that still operates today. The UHCA encouraged churches to create Bible Church Schools (Sunday schools) to train youth and adults in bible literacy and Christian moral growth. Moreover, churches then and today raised scholarship funds for youth attending college and trade schools.
Another prominent example of African American Pentecostalism’s encouragement of education and literacy is the Church of God in Christ. COGIC, in its early days and even today, encouraged its ministers to have formal Bible training, and its founder, C.H. Mason, created Bible colleges throughout the South. COGIC’s Women’s Department furthered the aims of Christian education by encouraging robust Sunday School attendance and raising funds for educational scholarships for its youth and young adults.
African American Pentecostalism through individual churches improved literacy among its members and supported generations of Black youth to acquire educational training and achieve academic credentialing for secular and spiritual purposes. Educational attainment to early Black Pentecostals assisted in spreading the social gospel by lifting the largely rural and poor southern Black Americans from poverty and allowing them to acquire a measure of prosperity while growing their Christian education and civic literacy. However, African American Pentecostalism’s encouragement of educational achievement was not unique but reflective of the larger Black Church’s emphasis on education and literacy that was already actively demonstrated by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and National Baptist Association.
Cultural Significance
The most prominent African American Christian organization, regardless of denomination, is the Church of God in Christ, with over 6 million members worldwide. The cultural impact and significance of Black American Pentecostalism cannot be denied. Black American Pentecostalism provided a means for social progress and growth within Black Southerners.
The Early Black Pentecostal movement was one of radicalism, spiritual renewal, and unity. The movement not only shattered the stained-glass ceiling of religious leadership for women but also loosened the rope of American racism and soothed the scars of racial prejudice with the experience of spirit baptism and Christian perfection for its members.
“Ecstatic speech, free dancing, and emphasis on a Spirit deity are the marks of Pentecostalism and its African roots.” See William Turner’s A Study in Black Holiness Pentecostalism: The United Holy Church of America. Black Pentecostalism, in its beginning, sought to revive the “Africans” of Black churches and encourage a return to fundamentalism within Black religiosity and secularity.
The Black Pentecostal church, though not as outwardly vocal as its counterparts in the Baptist and Methodist organizations, concerning civil rights and Black social advancement — emphasized through its moral teachings and secular organization Black achievement and advancement. Moreover, many individual clergypersons encouraged civil rights engagement. They pushed for Black economic development through investment in Black businesses and encouragement of missionary work within America, the Caribbean, and West Africa. For the Black Pentecostal to be “Christian” meant to exemplify one’s faith through acts of service and moral separation, forsaking “worldly vices” and investing one’s energy in spiritual and cultural improvement via feeding the sick, educating the illiterate, investing within the community’s institutions.
The Black Church is one of the most enduring institutions of Black America. As we reexamine our social contract with larger American culture and traditions, let’s recognize that the few advancements we have acquired through our history in America were preserved and instigated by the Black Church and its many expressions.
