History: Racist Church Histories as Different as Black and White

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?

Co-Founders of Pentecostalism

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.

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. Pastor Lucy Farrow put William Seymour in touch with Charles Parham, and in 1906, Seymour founded his congregation at Azusa Street in California. 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. Parham hired Lucy Farrow as a family governess; he did not see her as a pastor.

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, forming the mixed-race Church of God in Christ and the primarily whites-only Assemblies of God.

Pastor Seymour, co-founder of Pentecostalism

Black and White Reunited

In 1994, Pentecostals demonstrated reconciliation by dissolving 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. In 1994, white and black Pentecostal leaders gathered, listened, repented, forgave, embraced one another and washed one another's feet. As part of reconciliation, the PFNA was dissolved and a new interacial group was formed, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA).

My novel, Forgotten Followers: from Broken to Bold, shows Jesus accepting people of various races and mixed races as disciples and apostles

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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)

• The Sword: A Fun Way to Engage in Healthy Debate on What the Bible Says About a Woman's Role (2023)

• Because She Was Called from Broken to Bold, Book 2, A Novel of the Early Church (2024)

• Walk with Mara on Her Healing Journey: 21 Steps to Emotional Resilience (2024)

• Finding Her Voice from Broken to Bold, Book 3, A Novel of the Earliest Female Apostles (coming October 2025)

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