Witness: Two Hundred Years of African-American Faith and Practice at the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, New York

by Genna Rae McNeil, Houston Bryan Roberson, Quinton Hosford Dixie

Overview

This detailed history of the famous Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City, begins with its organization in 1809 and continues through its relocations, its famous senior pastors, and its many crises and triumphs, up to the present. Considered the largest Protestant congregation in the United States during the pre-megachurch 1930s, this church plays a very important part in the history of New York City.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802881892
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	12/01/2013
Pages:	722
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.59(d)

About the Author

Genna Rae McNeil is a professor at the University of North Carolina; she specializes in African-American history and twentieth-century social movements in the United States. Her other books include Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights.


Houston Bryan Roberson is author of Fighting the Good Fight: The Story of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, 1865-1977.


Quinton Hosford Dixie is coauthor (with Peter Eisenstadt) of Visions of a Better World: Howard Thurman's Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence and coeditor of Courage to Hope:From Black Suffering to Human Redemption.


Kevin McGruder is a professor of African and African-American studies at Lehman College in New York City.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 "Upon This Rock" 1

2 Gathered in Jesus' Name 23

3 "Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us," 1901-1908 43

4 "Forward in a Larger Service": Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., and the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1908-1937 78

5 Toward a New Earth: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Abyssinian Baptist Church, and Prophetic Christianity, 1931-1943 152

6 "Keep the Faith!": Abyssinian Baptist Church, the Church of the Masses, 1944-1972 183

7 "Higher Ground": Samuel DeWitt Proctor and the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1972-1989 233

8 "A Calling to Fulfill": Calvin O. Butts III 288

9 "To Serve This Present Age" 339

Bicentennial Photograph Gallery 429

Afterwords

The Challenge of the Prophetic Witness in the Twenty-First Century Cornel West 458

Building on Connections, Advancing a Frontier: Women and Urban Ministry Cheryl Townsend Gilkes 460

Appendixes

1 The Abyssinian Baptist Church Mission Statement 463

2 Witnessing Through Ministries: The Ministries of Abyssinian Baptist Church Robert L. Smith, M.A. Genna Rae McNeil, Ph.D. 464

3 The Abyssinian Pulpit 492

Pastors of Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1808 to the Present 492

Assistant and Associate Ministers: A Selected Listing, Based upon Extant Sources in Abyssinian Baptist Church Archives 495

Selected Sermon Texts Pastors Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor Calvin O. Butts III 498

4 The Official Boards of Abyssinian Baptist Church: A Selected Listing, Researched and Compiled Kevin McGruder Dane Peters 524

5 Clerks of Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1910 to the Present 528

6 Ministers of Music at Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1901 to the Present 530

7 Selected Women of Outstanding Service to Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, Compiled Martia Goodson 531

8 The Abyssinian Baptist Church Administration Staff Organizational Chart, 2007-2008 535

9 The Abyssinian Development Corporation, 1997-2007: A Brief History of Abyssinian's Community Development Affiliate Kevin McGruder, Ph.D. 537

10 Historical Documents 549

A Reflection: The Role of the Photographic Archive in the Abyssinian Baptist Church Deborah Willis, Ph.D. 559

Photograph Gallery: Abyssinian and Its Community 563

Notes 593

Acknowledgments 660

Index 670

Editorial Reviews

The Catholic Historical Review
"Represents an important addition to African American congregational history."

Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae
"A book which one cannot ignore but must read to understand the global experiences of the African."

Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
— Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago
"This much-needed history of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem is a 'must-read' for generations of Americans who want to know the complex and complicated story of the black religious tradition, the black church tradition, and the intersectionality of race, religion, and politics amidst the ever-changing and evolving landscape of life for Africans in New York City — from the days following the Civil War up through the Great Migration and on into the twenty-first century. . . . A debt of gratitude is owed to Genna Rae McNeil, Houston Bryan Roberson, Quinton Hosford Dixie, and Kevin McGruder! These dedicated historians have captured an important segment of black church history and written about it with passion and with care."

Lawrence H. Mamiya
— Vassar College
"A magnificent history of an outstanding African-American congregation with a national pulpit for its preachers. On the basis of meticulous research, the authors have chronicled the triumphs and the failures, the harmonious unity and the conflicts within the two-hundred-year history of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. . . . This history serves as a model for the history of other church congregations."

Cornel West
— from afterword
"Magisterial. . . . A powerful and poignant book."

Choice (American Library Association)
"This institutional account of one of the most long-lived and famous black churches in the US deserves a place in the larger history of religion in the US. . . . The abundant detail and substantive appendixes make this a useful resource in the pursuit of religious networks and institutions over time. Recommended."

Booklist
"A basic resource in African American history."

Journal of American History
"A landmark scholarly treatment of a consequential congregation and its large role in the American and African American religious experience."

From the Publisher