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Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism is unavailable, but you can change that!

Estrelda Alexander was raised in an urban, black, working-class, oneness Pentecostal congregation in the 1950s and 1960s, but she knew little of her heritage and thought that all Christians worshiped and believed as she did. Much later she discovered that many Christians not only knew little of her heritage but considered it strange. Even today, most North Americans remain ignorant of black...

reluctance of some whites to serve under a black leader. Interestingly, of the major Pentecostal bodies in the United States, the Assemblies of God has remained the most racially segregated, with less than 2 percent of its constituency being African American. The oneness branch of Pentecostalism, represented by the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, remained biracial for the longest period, working to ensure that not only its congregations but also its leadership reflected racial equality. But
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