History: Racist Church Histories as Different as Black and White
- Elaine R Kelly
- Oct 15, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: 24 hours ago
The way we write about history is as different as black and white.
White history honours the white man as the Father of Pentecostalism and says that despite his beliefs, he permitted a Black student to sit in the hall and listen through the open door
Black history honours the black man as the Co-founder of Pentecostalism and says despite being humiliated, disrespected and segregated, he agreed to be a student to the white teacher.
Do they tell the same history? Which history have you heard?
How has the version of history you know shaped your current thoughts?
Do you know how they reconciled?
WHITE HISTORY
Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929):
Sole Father of Pentecostalism
In 1900, he started a Bible school in Kansas, teaching his new idea that the baptism of the Holy Spirit could come with the ability to speak in tongues
The first person to speak in tongues was Parham's student, Agnes Ozman, in 1901
Parham trained women for ministry and commissioned them to found churches and serve as pastors. His sister-in-law, Lilian Thistlewaite, conducted meetings and spoke at gatherings.
He witnessed both women and men blessed by the Holy Spirit and honoured their preaching
In 1905, he opened the Bible Training School in Houston
Despite his own segregationist beliefs, Parham allowed black student William Joseph Seymour to listen to his lectures through an open door while sitting in the hall
Hundreds of people became Parham's followers.
BLACK HISTORY
William Joseph Seymour
Co-founder of Pentecostalism
An African American Baptist minister who wanted to attend Parham's School
In 1903, Seymour moved to Houston, Texas and joined a small church pastored by a black woman, Lucy Farrow, who soon put him in touch with Charles Parham
Despite being required to sit in the hall, separate from the white students in the class, Seymour listened intently
Mr Seymour was black, the son of former slaves, blind in one eye, and willing to endure the humiliation in order to learn the radical new theology.
In 1906, Seymour opened Azusa Street Mission church in Los Angeles, CA, where he preached boldly about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Both women and men were blessed by the Holy Spirit and permitted to preach.
Thousands of people became Seymour's followers, including Blacks, Hispanics and Whites, filling his auditorium three times daily, seven days per week.
Florence Crawford, who had been a co-worker with Seymour, went on to found the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon, in 1907.
Seymour dreamed that Azusa Street was creating a new kind of church, where a common experience in the Holy Spirit tore down old walls of racial, ethnic, and denominational differences. He began publishing a paper titled The Apostolic Faith. At its height, it went free to 50,000 subscribers.
The Rift
These two fathers of Pentecostalism both honoured women as preachers from the year 1900 forward. Both saw women gifted by the Spirit. Agnes Ozman studied under Parham, and in 1901, she was considered the first person to speak in tongues.
Lucy Farrow pastored a Holiness church in Houston in 1905, and called on William J. Seymour to cover her charge when she worked for Charles Parham as a governess. Lucy Farrow was instrumental in the early foundations of Pentecostalism and was the first African American person to be recorded as having spoken in tongues.
Through Farrow, William Seymour met Charles Parham. In 1906, Seymour founded his congregation at Azusa Street in California, with six male and six female elders.
When Parham visited Seymour's Azusa Street worship centre, Parham was reportedly "aghast at the racial integration" and extreme emotionalism demonstrated in Seymour's church. Parham tried to exercise some control over the proceedings.
The two church fathers soon parted ways, with Parham leading the primarily whites-only Assemblies of God. Seymour led the mixed-race Church of God in Christ. One of the leaders at Azusa Street revival was Jennie Moore. She was the first woman baptized in the Holy Spirit at Azusa and she was a preacher, evangelist, and singer. In 1908, she and Seymour married. Apparently this marriage upset other Azusa white female co-workers, Clara Lum and Florence Crawford. They moved to Portland, Oregon, taking with them the mailing list for The Apostolic Faith newsletter, ending Seymour's leadership of the emerging movement.
The Reunion: Memphis Miracle
In 1994, Pentecostals broke the walls of division and reunited. White and black Pentecostal leaders gathered, listened, repented, forgave, embraced one another and washed one another's feet. To be clear, it was the Whites from the PFNA who repented and the Blacks who forgave. Don Evans, a White Assemblies of God pastor, washed the feet of Bishop Ithiel Clemmons, of the Church of God in Christ, and asked for forgiveness for his white brothers and sisters. The washing of feet demonstrated humility, respect, and mutual service.
With this reconciliation, the Pentecostals dissolved the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America (PFNA). The PFNA had been formed in 1948 for white Pentecostal denominations only. The PFNA was formed under the influence of a Church of England movement for British Israelism, the belief that whites were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel and that God intended races to live separately. As part of the reconciliation, a new interacial group was formed, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA).
My trilogy, from Broken to Bold, shows Jesus accepting people of various races and mixed races as disciples and apostles.
Elaine Ricker Kelly Author is empowering women with historical fiction about women in the Bible and early church and Christian blogs about women in leadership, church history and doctrine. Her books include:
Forgotten Followers from Broken to Bold, Book 1, A Novel (2022)
Because She Was Called from Broken to Bold, Book 2, A Novel of the Early Church (2024)
Finding Her Voice from Broken to Bold, Book 3, Acts of Early Female Apostles: A Novel (2025)
The Sword: A Fun Way to Engage in Healthy Debate on What the Bible Says About a Woman's Role (2023)
Walk with Mara on Her Healing Journey: 21 Steps to Emotional Resilience (2024)
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