WITNESS

Two Hundred Years

of African-American Faith and Practice

at the Abyssinian Baptist Church

of Harlem, New York

Genna Rae McNeil

Houston Bryan Roberson

Quinton Hosford Dixie

Kevin McGruder

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2014 Genna Rae McNeil, Houston Bryan Roberson, Quinton Hosford Dixie, and Kevin McGruder

All rights reserved

Published 2014 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

www.eerdmans.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Witness: two hundred years of African-American faith and practice at the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, New York / Genna Rae McNeil, Houston Bryan Roberson, Quinton Hosford Dixie, Kevin McGruder.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8028-6341-6 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Abyssinian Baptist Church (New York, N.Y.)—History.

2. New York (N.Y.)—Church history.

I. McNeil, Genna Rae.

BX6480.N5W58 2014

286.′17471—dc23

2013001748

Endsheet photo courtesy of Bob Gore, Bob Gore Productions, Inc., Brooklyn, NY.

To All Abyssinians—

Past, Present, and Future

Contents

Preface

1. “Upon This Rock”

2. Gathered in Jesus’ Name

3. “Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us,” 1901–1908

4. “Forward in a Larger Service”: Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., and the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1908–1937

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

6. “Keep the Faith!”: Abyssinian Baptist Church, the Church of the Masses, 1944–1972

7. “Higher Ground”: Samuel DeWitt Proctor and the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1972–1989

8. “A Calling to Fulfill”: Calvin O. Butts III

9. “To Serve This Present Age”

Bicentennial Photograph Gallery

AFTERWORDS

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

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

APPENDIXES

1. The Abyssinian Baptist Church Mission Statement

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

3. The Abyssinian Pulpit

Pastors of Abyssinian Baptist Church, 1808 to the Present

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

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

4. The Official Boards of Abyssinian Baptist Church: A Selected Listing, Researched and Compiled by Kevin McGruder, Ph.D., and Dane Peters, B.A.

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

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

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

8. The Abyssinian Baptist Church Administration ...