Abstract
William Joseph Seymour was born in the Southern United States at Centreville, Louisiana in 1870. He grew up in the midst of Ku Klux Klan and White League lynchings and violence, and institutionalised racism and segregation. Seymour taught himself to read and imbibed the religion, culture and music of the black community.1 Foremost in his schooling was the Bible and equality, community, the experience of power from the Spirit of God, visions, and the apocalyptic Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The work began among the colored people. God baptized several sanctified wash women with the Holy Ghost, who have been much used of Him.
William J. Seymour
The origins of the Pentecostal movement go back to a revival among the Negroes of North America at the beginning of the present century.
Walter J. Hollenweger
Pentecostalism, both Black and white, was essentially Black in origin … the Pentecostal revival had begun in an all-Black home in an all-Black neighbourhood, under Seymour’s sole guidance.
James S. Tinney
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Notes and References
Nelson, Douglas, J., For Such a Time as This: the Story of Bishop William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Birmingham, May 1981, p. 31. Nelson gives a more detailed account of Seymour’s early life on pp. 153–8.
Ibid., P. 163; Anderson, Robert Mapes, A Social History of the Early 20th Century Pentecostal Movement, Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1969 (High Wycombe: University Microfilms, 1972) pp. 41–3, 152–3.
Quarles, Benjamin, The Negro in the Making of America (New York: Collier, 1964), quoted in Nelson, p. 156.
Nelson, pp. 32–5, 159, 162, 165–7; Parham, Sarah E. (comp.), The Life of Charles f Parham: Founder of the Apostolic Faith Movement (Joplin Missouri: Tri-State Printing Co., 1930) pp. 88–135; Anderson, pp. 64— 9.
Nelson, p. 168; Anderson, p. 89. See also Synan, Vinson, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971) pp. 104–5.
Anderson, pp. 93–4; Parham, Life, p. 142; Bloch-Hoell, Nils, The Pentecostal Movement: Its Origin, Development, and Distinctive Character (Oslo: Universitsforlaget; London: Allen & Unwin, 1964) pp. 30–1. See also Synan, Holiness-Pentecostal, pp. 95–8. And the personal account in Bartleman, Frank, Azusa Street; originally entitled How ‘Pentecost’ Came to Los Angles — How It Was at the Beginning (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1980; originally 1925) pp. 7–38.
Nelson, p. 191. Cf. Niebuhr’s description of the character of proletarian religious movements (Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Social Sources of Denominationalism [New York: Living Age Books/Meridan Books, 1957; originally 1929] pp. 29–31).
For a consideration of the place of women as leaders in African societies see Sweetman, David, Women Leaders in African History (Heinemann Educational, 1984) passim.
Hollenweger, Walter J., The Pentecostals (London: SCM Press, 1972) p. 24, quoted from a German translation of Confidence, Sept. 1912. Also quoted in Nelson, p. 198.
Ibid. pp. 107–9. Nickel, Thomas, R., The Amazing Shakarian Story (Los Angeles: Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, 1964).
Tomlinson, A. J., The Last Great Conflict, (Cleveland: Press of Walter E. Rodgers, 1913) pp. 211, 214,
quoted in Stone, James, The Church of God of Prophecy, History and Polity (Cleveland: White Wing Publishing House and Press, 1977) p. 27; Synan, Holiness-Pentecostal, pp. 133–4;
Tomlinson, Homer A., (ed.), Diary of A.J. Tomlinson (New York: Church of God World Headquarters, 1949–1955, vol. I; pp. 17–18, vol. III: p.49.
Dugger, Lillie, A.J. Tomlinson (Cleveland, Tennessee: White Wing Publishing House, 1964) pp. 52–3;
Conn, Charles W., Like a Mighty Army: a History of the Church of God (Cleveland: Pathway Press, 1977) pp. 84–5.
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© 1988 Iain MacRobert
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MacRobert, I. (1988). The Birth of a Movement: William J. Seymour and the Azusa Mission. In: The Black Roots and White Racism of Early Pentecostalism in the USA. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19488-9_6
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