RACISM

A Glimpse of Unity: Early Days

In the beginning, the meetings were integrated and glorious. Despite the fact that Seymour was black, many of his followers were white. While at the beginning of the revival, blacks did predominate, it was at the height of the meetings that whites constituted a majority. The staff of the Azusa Street Mission (later incorporated as Apostolic Faith Mission) was an integrated staff of men and women, blacks and whites. Frank Bartleman, in reporting on the Azusa revival, praised the work and stated that the color line had been washed away in the Blood.

Breaking Racial Barriers

The passionate desire for sanctification as well as a great hunger for God brought people together of varying races during a time of racial oppression and segregation upheld by the Jim Crow laws of those days. In April 1907, a full year after the beginning of the Azusa Street revival, The Apostolic Faith continued to make the same point: “The Church is composed of people from all races and nations who, by the blood of Christ, have been made into a family.”

The Storm of Opposition

In addition to the derogatory remarks made by Parham concerning the emotionalism, he also made racist remarks. When Parham visited Azusa Street at Seymour’s invitation in October 1906, he denounced the revival as a “darky camp meeting.” Another pressure that was placed on those precious meetings at Azusa was the barrage of racist remarks in the local Los Angeles newspapers. One reporter labeled such events as “disgusting scenes.” “Whites and Blacks Mix in a Religious Frenzy,” he announced. Another paper thundered, “Religious Fanaticism Creates Wild Scenes” “Holy Kickers Carry On Mad Orgies” and “Negroes and Whites Give themselves Over to strange Outbursts of Zeal.”

The Fallout

Such headlines were designed to inflame the imagination, titillating the casual reader with sexual innuendo like a supermarket tabloid. Before long, whites were leaving the work at Azusa Street and going to other churches. Bartleman reports in his book that in September 1906, “A brother, Elmer Fisher, then started another mission at 327 South Spring Street, known as the Upper Room Mission. Most of the white saints from Azusa went with him, with the baptized ones from the New Testament Church.” Florence Crawford and Clara Lum, who helped Seymour publish The Apostolic Faith, moved to Portland and started an almost exclusive work for whites.

A Painful Legacy

Once the whites defected, the Azusa Street Mission became almost entirely black. As a result, Seymour revised the doctrines, discipline, and constitution of his Apostolic Faith movement to recognize himself as “bishop” and guarantee that the successor would always be “a man of color.” Seymour struggled with the painful consequences as he watched the disintegration of the work over racial prejudice.

Tale Tuesday 049

Date:   18th July 2023
Title:  Racism
Source: The Azusa Street Revival
Author: Roberts Liardon