(1901) William Hooper Councill’s Letter to the White People of Alabama

 

Most scholars of today imagine Booker T. Washington as the major accommodationist and black political conservative of the era.  There were others including Professor William Hooper Councill, the founder and  first president of the Huntsville Normal School which today is Alabama A.A& M University.  Councill founded the school in 1875, six years before Booker T. Washington established Tuskegee in south central Alabama, and led the school until his death in 1909.  In the public letter below written on November 28, 1901, Councill outlines his views regarding the recently passed Alabama Constitution which effectively denied the vote to its African American citizens.  Couched in the language of deference, Councill, nonetheless, protests the new level of denial of rights to blacks in the state and the language of racial hate that accompanied that denial.

I have served you in slavery and in freedom for over half a century.  I have stood with you for “good government” for a quarter of a century.  As all of past life has been devoted to your service and to the welfare of my race, I believe that you will grant me a hearing now.

I love Alabama.  I have been true to her at home and abroad.  I have never breathed one work against her.  I have all along trusted her white people.  I revere the names of her long lines of noble sons with untarnished honor, who scorned wrong and hate injustice. Their faith in right gave birth to your Confederate monument which stands on Capitol Hill representing what they regarded as truth.  But today, I am alarmed! I tremble for the future of my people in Alabama, unless you come to our rescue.

The recent [political] campaign was one of bitterness and abuse of my people.  Many of the public speakers did not appeal to the highest sentiment in man, but held up the Negro in a manner to make the white masses hostile to him.  With all your best efforts for many years to come, it will be hard to undo the harm which was done to my race by the campaign into which was put so much unkind feeling.  Not that you put a premium on suffrage.  That was right.  Not that the white man became supreme in government.  He was that already.  But in the sentiment manufactured against us.  Was such a campaign necessary?

There could have been but one result—ratification—[even if] the press and speakers had held their peace.  Then why abuse and mortify the men who are trying hard to please you and serve you every hour?

Do not misunderstand me.  For God’s sake do not misrepresent me.   I have never asked for unqualified suffrage.  Since a majority of the better elements of the white people of Alabama wanted the new constitution and promised better things under it, I was not against it.  I am opposed to every phase of social equality so distasteful to us both, and in my opinion, detrimental to Southern society.  There is no necessity for it.  Ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine (99,999) Negroes in every one hundred thousand (100,000) do not seek social equality, and if every Negro in the State sought it, it would not be.  You know all this.  Still we were abused, and the hostility of the lower element of your race aroused against us, while a quarter of a million of us were bowed, uncomplaining, at your cook pots, ironing boards, wash tubs, in your cotton fields, and in all the varied industries, loyal and true to you.  We are in your hands as babes in the hands of giants, making no laws, construing no laws, executing no laws, holding no offices, composing no juries, forming no militia, a weak, powerless people, and still men acted toward us as if we had been Caesar’s Legions in their palmiest days.  If we were the strong and you the weak, would not you be alarmed?  I beg you in the name of your mothers who were cradled in the arms of black women, in the name of your fathers who were loved and served by our fathers, and in the name of the sacred dead in gray, around whose sad hearths we kept faithful vigil, to rise up and checkmate those evil influences which you have set on foot against us.  You do not know the harm you have done.  We know it.  We feel it keenly in a hundred ways.

Do not say that it is only the educated Negro who is disturbed.  God grant that it were so. But the cut has entered the soul of the ignorant Negro whose benighted mind cannot gather light from the philosophy of history and strength from a knowledge of the ultimate triumph of right; but the stolid, sullenly silent man whom you much change into the citizen of hope and obedience, or drive into the stupid, homeless, riotous creature of despair—a best, a constant menace to be cured by the Gatling gun.

The new constitution makes it possible for the darkest wrong to be perpetrated on Negro education and many of the campaign speakers and writers prepared the public to commit this wrong.  You can compel a Negro school to run ten months on one hundred dollars and appropriate one thousand dollars for ten months to a white school under your new constitution. You must surely know that such injustice would not only drive away from you the loyal hearts of your Negro population, but would drive them from Alabama.  Your own Dr. Curry told your Legislature that the Negro was, in certain counties, often defrauded out of his part of school funds under the old constitution.  Who will guarantee that it will not be done to a greater extent under the new constitution?  You got a new constitution, you said, to avoid the necessity of committing fraud in elections. You promised us righteous treatment in educational affairs. Your own statesmen say that the Negro pays taxes and still some men persist in saying that he does not.  If you wish a division of the school funds on racial lines, go to the very bottom of the matter, and see who pulls the tax money from the bosom of the earth, the only original source of wealth.

Your own record shows that the mass of your Negro labor is not only law abiding but industrious.  The proportion of Negro wage earners in the entire Negro population in Alabama is greater than any other Southern state except Louisiana.  Give us our portion in equity and we will not complain.  You promised to do this.  You said that with the political matter settled, all else should be fair. I still have faith in you.  Though you slay me, yet will I trust you.  Present the question fairly to the popular vote of the white people alone.  I believe they would vote for a division of the school fund on the basis of scholastic enumeration, and they would enumerate fairly, too.  Take this matter out of the hands of men who do not like my race. Let it rest on the Golden Rule, then peace, prosperity, and happiness will come to all our people, and your waste places will bloom.  Leave it with men who hate us, who appeal to prejudice, and it will soon take the place of the political question just settled.

It is said that the educated Negro is the criminal Negro.  We are in your fields, in your kitchens, and shops at work.  We cannot answer.  But what are the facts as recorded by you in your books?  Three million (3,000,000) Negroes can read and write.  Only eleven thousand (11,000) Negroes who can read and write are in all the prisons of the country.  Just one Negro in every hundred who can read and write is engaged in teaching, preaching, and other professional work. That is what your records tell.  Does this show that the educated Negro is the criminal Negro, that all educated Negroes go into the professions and that education unfits the Negro for labor?

Two million, nine hundred and fifty thousand (2,950,000) Negroes who can read and write are working every day for you in all grades of labor.  Are not our virtues minimized and our sins magnified by men who do not like us?  I do not hesitate to state as a fact that nine in every ten Negro teachers and preachers are loyal and true to the South, and hold up the best lights before the ignorant masses of the Negroes.  Whether you accept it or not, these Negro teachers and preachers will be the life preservers among your laboring population in less than fifty years.

We are part of your productive population.  Please study us. Please look into what we are doing, and what we are teaching and preaching.  I beg you not to listen to those who use our weakness to arouse prejudices to elevate them to position.  We want only what is right.   The better element of white people do not know what unnecessary insults and hardships are put upon we Negroes.  We bear these things because we know that even a manly and most humble protest is often put down as impudence and arrogance.  Nearly everywhere we turn, in cities, in backwoods—the Negro stands muzzled and manacled, and unkind white men belabor our backs with impunity.  White men of Alabama, for God’s sake look at this picture!  It is not overdrawn.  See the truth as it is before God and angels!  Are you not debauching your own sons by lodging such privileges and unholy power in the pigment of a man’s skin?  Punish the Negro—whip him until the blood runs in streams when he is wrong, but let justice be done him though the heavens fall—justice everywhere.  Truth, Mercy, and Justice will strengthen and adorn your race when it stands before the judgment bar of future intelligence and righteousness.

Mississippi disfranchised the Negro, but she is fair in education.  Mississippi, the home of Jefferson Davis.  Georgia stands up for Negro education.  Georgia, the home of Alexander Stephens [vice president of the confederate states]!  Mississippi welcomes the Negro to her borders.  Texas gives princely support to Negro education and invites him to her territory.   Can you see the signs of the times?  Must your labor element be kept suspicious, treated wrong by the men who take advantage of the color of their skin—men who know the power in white and the weakness in black—or will you protect us and make life profitable and happy to us?
The Jewish people are examples of the triumph of right. Their history shows forth God’s mercies in the life of people.  It is a warning to cruel men.  Every nation which has been cruel to the Jew is dead or dying.  The Jew has served many nations for thousands of years.  He was obedient to the laws of all, and bent his back to the stripes laid on by all. At last God ha brought him to a land here he has peace and where those who once despised him honor him.

I have been loyal and true to you. I would be disloyal and untrue now if I did not speak.  We love you, honor you, and want to serve you.  Encourage us.  We need it.

I have presented conditions that cannot be cured by abuse, or general denial. I have presented conditions which you must strike down, or which will harm us all.  I appeal to you—not to the north—not to Congress.  They are powerless.  You are all-powerful in this matter.  I believe that you have the righteousness to correct these conditions and I trust it is all in your hands.

If your race is in superior condition, then God has placed the races in inferior conditions under your care for kind treatment, and not to be mistreated and crushed.  Will you do the work of god, or must He take it in His own hands as He has always done when men failed?  The weak and unfortunate are His tenderest care.

“Right forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne;
Yet the  scaffold sways the future,
For behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His Own.”

W. H. Councill
Normal, Alabama, November 28th 1901

About the Author

Horace King (1807-1885) was the most respected bridge-builder in Alabama, Georgia, and northeastern Mississippi during the mid-nineteenth century. Enslaved until 1846,

Horace King Horace King Horace King (1807-1885) was the most respected bridge-builder in Alabama, Georgia, and northeastern Mississippi during the mid-nineteenth century. Enslaved until 1846, King and his owner, John Godwin, worked as partners on major construction projects. By 1860, he was one of the wealthiest free blacks in Alabama. Both in slavery and a free black, King traveled without any restrictions throughout the Deep South. After reluctantly working for the Confederacy, he served as an Alabama legislator during Reconstruction. His role as an engineer and contractor, during a period when few professional opportunities existed for African Americans, earned him a legendary status that was enhanced over time by towns eager to claim, sometimes erroneously, their own Horace King covered bridge, warehouse, mill, courthouse, church, elaborate Gothic house, or staircase. After his death, local historians and journalists frequently cited Horace King as an example of a successful African American. Although he certainly was an exceptional bridge architect and builder of massive heavy-timber frame structures, his career as an entrepreneur was limited by the racial biases of his time. Eufaula Bridge Born in 1807 into slavery in the Chesterfield District of South Carolina, Horace King was of mixed African, European, and Catawba ancestry. He was purchased by John Godwin, a contractor in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1830 and may have been related to the family of Godwin's wife, Ann Wright (1808-1854) of Marlboro, South Carolina. In 1832, the Godwins, along with Horace, his mother, brother, and sister, relocated to Girard (present-day Phenix City), Alabama, across the river from Columbus, Georgia, and the town hired Godwin to construct the first bridge across the lower Chattahoochee River. By 1837, John Godwin had transferred the ownership of the King family to his wife Ann Godwin and her uncle and financial guardian, William Carney Wright of Montgomery. This was perhaps done to prevent King from being seized by John Godwin's creditors. In 1839, King married Frances Gould Thomas, a free Black woman who was also of mixed ancestry. Her legal status guaranteed freedom for their children. The unusual sanction of such a marriage by Ann Godwin and William Wright underscores the social latitude afforded the enslaved King because of his exceptional talents. Building a covered bridge required many skills, including erecting tall rock or timber piers and constructing lattice framework (trusses) of sawn lumber for the sides connected to massive hand-hewn support timbers. Builders also needed to join all the elements with treenails (large wooden pegs) and ensure that the bridge truss formed a slight arc, known as camber. Godwin probably taught King these skills, but the pupil quickly became more skilled than the teacher. Between 1838 and 1840, King supervised construction of Godwin's massive toll bridges across the Chattahoochee River at West Point, Eufaula, and Florence (present-day Florence Marina), Georgia. Financed by private investors, each span cost close to $22,000—an indication of the economic potential of toll bridges. Robert Jemison Jr. During the early 1840s, King designed and constructed bridges in Alabama and Mississippi while Godwin remained in Girard. Tuscaloosa resident Seth King (no relation to Horace), rather than Horace King, built the initial bridge in 1834 across the Black Warrior River in that town. Seth King, along with Robert Jemison Jr., a state legislator and Tuscaloosa entrepreneur, invested in Horace's bridges at Columbus, Mississippi, in 1843 and Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1844. Godwin negotiated Horace's fee with these investors, but Horace designed the bridges and supervised their construction. Historians believe that Godwin and Horace King probably shared the revenue. The investors made money by collecting tolls on these bridges. Jemison and Horace King continued to collaborate and developed a close working relationship. In early 1845, while working for William Carney Wright, King bridged the Tallapoosa River at Tallassee. Later that year King oversaw construction of three small bridges for Jemison near Steens, Mississippi, where Jemison owned saw and grist mills. In February 1846, Jemison guided an emancipation bill for King through the Alabama legislature, and the Godwins and Wright freed him. King later asserted that he bought his freedom, possibly with income from his projects with Wright and Jemison. Whatever the factors of King's emancipation, he and Godwin experienced a unique relationship. After Godwin's death in 1859, King erected a monument over Godwin's grave. During the early 1850s, the state of Alabama hired King to perform carpentry work, including elegant circular staircases, on the new capitol building in Montgomery. In the mid-1850s King built Moore's Bridge, over the Chattahoochee River on the road between Newnan and Carrollton, Georgia. In 1857, Milledgeville residents hired King to bridge the Oconee River at Milledgeville, Georgia's capital at the time. King's crews just had begun cutting timbers when a conflict arose between King and the investors. At the same time, Nelson Tift, an entrepreneur, newspaper owner, and legislator, contracted with King for a span across the Flint River at Albany, a town founded by Tift in the 1830s. According to local historians King quit the Milledgeville venture, loaded his timbers on a railroad car, and shipped them to Albany. Dillingham Street Covered Bridge By 1858, King and his family had moved to Moore's Bridge. During the next few years, King's activities contradict the idea of free blacks being restricted in terms of their mobility. He constructed bridges and large timber-frame buildings in Alabama and Georgia and often rode the train between his two houses at Moore's Bridge and Girard. King's wife Frances and their children collected tolls and farmed at Moore's Bridge until July 1864, when Union cavalry under Gen. George Stoneman Jr. burned the span. Frances died in Girard about three months later, and in June 1865 King married Sarah Jane Jones McManus. During the Civil War, King attempted to continue building bridges as an independent contractor, but necessity forced him into war-related work. After the war, King maintained that he had always been a Unionist, and that he always "begged and talked for the Union." Even so, Confederate officials in Columbus forced the pro-Union King to blockade the lower Apalachicola River to prevent Union navigation, and the Alabama governor pressed him into the same activity along the lower Alabama River. King also erected a large mill structure and supplied wood products for Confederate naval facilities in Columbus. King maintained good relations with local naval officers, but in 1864 he wrote Jemison, then a member of the Confederate Senate, asking what would happen if he stopped working for the Confederacy. Jemison's response, if any, has not been preserved. Wetumpka Bridge ca. 1880s During Reconstruction, King became a nominal, moderate Republican, serving twice as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 1870 to 1874. He rarely, if ever, occupied his seat during the initial year of his first term and played a limited role in later sessions. He was pre-occupied with the physical reconstruction of wagon and railroad bridges, grist and textile mills, and cotton warehouses. He had also built the initial Lee County courthouse in Opelika in 1867. King reportedly had financial problems but historians have not determined the circumstances. In 1872, King and his family moved to LaGrange, Georgia, where he and his sons continued to build bridges, stores, houses, and college buildings until Horace's death, on May 28, 1885. Lengthy obituaries in white-owned Atlanta, LaGrange, and Columbus newspapers reveal the extent of his fame. King's children—Washington W. (1843-1910), Marshall Ney (1844-79), John Thomas (1846-1926), Annie Elizabeth (1848-1919), and George (1850-1899)—continued their father's profession. Washington moved to Atlanta and built bridges throughout Georgia; his spans, now greatly modified, can be seen at Stone Mountain and Watson Mill State Park near Comer, Georgia. Other members of the family became prominent in the black middle class of LaGrange. Both John and George were builders, and John owned a lumberyard and George operated an annual African American fair. John was the leading layman in the local Methodist Episcopal Church and served as a trustee for that denomination's Clark University from the 1890s to the 1920s. His reputation as a builder extended into Atlanta, where he served as one of two contractors who built the Negro Building at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. In February 2017, the Alabama state government unveiled a portrait of King in the State Capitol that he had helped to build; it is the first portrait of an African American to hang in the seat of the Alabama government. Further Reading Cherry, Rev. Francis. "History of Opelika . . ." 1883. Reprint, Alabama Historical Quarterly 14 (1953): 193-97. Lupold, John S., and Thomas L. French Jr. Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2004. Robert Jemison Jr. Papers, 1797-1898, W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. External Links New Georgia Encyclopedia Alabama Legacy Moments: Horace King

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PROPHET WILLIAM SAUNDERS CROWDY http://icogsoc1.faithweb.com/history.htm

PROPHET WILLIAM SAUNDERS CROWDY

August 11, 1847 - August 3, 1908

THE TEACHINGS

The more a person studies history, the more he realizes this is true. History is made up of the lives of many men and women. Great men have made history. Sometimes one man stands out so clearly that history becomes the story of one. This is the case of William Saunders Crowdy, a great preacher (the World's Evangelist), who later was acknowledged a Prophet of the Almighty God, the man who founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896, an organization with branches throughout these United States of America, Canada, Africa and the West Indies.

In the year 1847, amidst the turmoil of post Mexican War days a baby boy was born of slave parents in Maryland. The religious upheaval on the frontier of the United States was among other things a quest for something better in the way of religion and was not confined to any particular race, country or creed, but was a need voiced by humanity in general. Mankind had communication with the divine power, the power that made heaven and earth and the sea; the power that caused lightening and the rain, that made snow and changed the seasons. This direct communication with this power was lost since the days of the Apostles and Prophets and many of the more spiritual minded of men cried out in their distress in the words of Elisha, "Where is the God of Elijah?" Many of the early frontiers people of the United States felt the need for such communication with the Holy Spirit, but it was the poor enslaved captives from the continent of Africa who ceased not to call upon God from the depths of their souls.

So God in His own wise providence and in his own time, did raise up one from among them, in answer to their prayers, a fulfillment of the prophecies of the Holy scriptures according to Malachi Chapter 4 and verse 5.

At Charlotte Hall, St Mary's Co., MD, a baby boy was born to Basil and Sarah Ann Crowdy. The baby was called "Wilson" and grew up on a slave plantation where his mother was a cook. He was lost to his family for forty years, during which time he joined the army where he was assigned to the Quarter Master Corps cooking for the officers. He fought for the cause of freedom in the Civil War and when the war was over he settled in the western part of the United States. He bought a small farm in Guthrie, Oklahoma, but later frequented Kansas City, Missouri, where he got married and raised a family.

The Lord began working with him in 1893. It was many years before he learned to obey and realize that the voice was not of his own imagination but actually the voice of God speaking to him. He soon learned the lessons taught him by the voice of God, that he was able to advise and instruct others to know and to harken similarly.

THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS

The first twelve years of the years when the Founder, Bishop William Saunders Crowdy was the active leader of the Church, were momentous indeed. There was first of all his great struggle to firmly establish a new organization which did not meet the approval of many people, even whole organizations. Not only was the leader himself persecuted but all those early members who believed he was right and aligned themselves with him in the face of this strong opposition, were maligned too. In many places their meetings were disrupted by the throwing of missiles; often they were threatened with weapons and have been known to fear for their very lives.

While passing through the streets they were at the mercy of misbehaved children who called them vile name and hurled mud, sticks, and stones or anything else that came to hand. The Saints, however, were taught to turn the other cheek and to otherwise deport themselves like sheep; to go on their way and leave vengeance to God. These incidents happened in many cities and towns throughout the United States.

ALL ALONE

The revelations which resulted in the ultimate establishment of The Church of God and Saints of Christ, began to come to William S. Crowdy when he was a cook for the Sante Fe Railroad. That this should be is foretold by the word of the Lord according to Psalms, chapter 68; also Psalms 81, verse 6, which says, "I removed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were delivered from the pots." The whole revelation of The Church of God and Saints of Christ did not come to him all at one time, but "precept upon precept and line upon line here a little and there a little" as recorded in the writings of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 28, verses 10 and 13. It was early in the year 1893 that he first began to receive these visitations which at first were urges to go away or to go off by himself. He refused these urges staying close to his home and children not wanting to be alone even to go to work. His wife also noted his strangeness and watched with female instincts. She noticed that at nights every few minutes he would rise from bed, go over to his bureau and write on a tablet. When day came, however, he went about his business as usual, seemingly unconscious of what happened during the night.

One evening his wife asked him why he was so restless at night and why was he writing on his tablet. He asked he "what tablet?" When she saw that he really did not know what she was talking about, she got the tablet and showed it to him. He said he looked at it and the whole vision of the Church came before him again, for on the little tablet he had written the "Seven Keys" which had been revealed to him during the night. It was at this point that he went out into the city of Guthrie, Oklahoma, the nearest village and began to preach in the street. He also became conscious of another change that had taken place in him, he was preaching the Bible, giving references, and quoting chapters and verses. His friends marveled at the change but he himself could not believe that he actually knew the Bible and would go home and look for verification of things he had quoted as being in such and such a chapter of the Bible. He was always amazed at the results, his quotations were there word for word.

After preaching for some time in his home town, Guthrie, he began to branch out to the neighboring villages and towns preaching, converting and baptizing. He was arrested a total of 22 times, or was held for examination of sanity, in many of the western towns and cities in which he preached. He said that in one place the Spirit came upon him and he began to preach in jail and when he had finished he asked, "Do I talk like an insane man?" And they answered "No, sir" and quickly turned him loose.

In the year 1896, he reached the city of Chicago and began as usual to preach on the street. He seldom preached the same sermon twice, but would "open his mouth" as God told the Prophet Isaiah, and say whatever the Lord gave him to say. Sometimes the words given him were palatable to his hearers "but," he said, "they were often like vitriolic acid." He was arrested several times on the streets of Chicago, but as soon as he was released, he would go to another place or even return to the same place, and continued preaching.

While in Chicago he was ordained a Bishop by a few of the ministers he had commissioned to preach. The Church of God and Saints of Christ became an organization. The Presbytery Board and all officers necessary for the management of an organization were appointed, the Bishop was the Executive Head and was given papers to preach the gospel wherever providence allowed. Most of the officials and members of the Church, when it was organized in the West, were Caucasian.

Bishop Crowdy now had an organized body, with members who loved him dearly, many believed he would settle down and take things easy, but no, he still had to go on. He traveled from one western town to another, organizing the Church and moving on.

BEGINNINGS IN THE EAST

The newspapers throughout the United States of America carried articles about the preaching of Bishop Crowdy in Chicago. He stirred up the city preaching about the Meat Law and that Christ was black. Many people everywhere were reading and discussing the news concerning the "Bishop Crowdy" in Chicago, who was confounding the whole world with a strange new doctrine.

In Oneida, New York, someone by the name of George Labiel read the articles and shared them with his neighbor, Mrs. Titus. When Mrs. Titus read about Bishop Crowdy, she decided that he should be invited to preach in their town. She wrote a letter to Bishop Crowdy in Chicago, and invited him to Oneida. She also sent him his fare. Bishop Crowdy accepted the invitation and left Chicago traveling by way of Detroit, Michigan and Canada. He set up churches and both places, ordained ministers and continued on his journey. On arrival in Oneida, New York, Bishop Crowdy was met by what appeared to be "opening day at the fair." There were "horses, wagons, buggies, transportation of all kinds were ] bringing people from miles away. The streets were full of those who lived nearby, traveling on foot. It was a big day for Oneida. The women were dressed peasant fashion in long full skirts and shawls over their heads." The large hall was packed, there was not even standing room and the crowd overflowed outside the building. It was a Spring day, and all who could not get in the hall stood around outside, not wanting to miss this extraordinary man of God. The gathering was organized by the Seventh Day Adventists.

When Bishop Crowdy arose to speak he quietly said "Church of God and Saints of Christ." He preached in a low voice using as his text the passages of scriptures around the walls of the hall. "The sermon was one such as had never been heard in that hall before nor since." Bishop Crowdy preached and baptized in Oneida for several weeks.

Bishop Crowdy then went south towards New York City. Here he again began his street preaching and baptized over a thousand members. This his largest congregation, at that time, was organized May 6, 1899. Churches were also set up in many of the surrounding towns of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Between May and October, 1899, William S. Crowdy, the Prophet of the Almighty God went to the city of Philadelphia. He was unknown and without friends, in a city which was the scene of much religious activity. He could be found on the northeast corner of Broad and Rodman Streets preaching from St. Mark 1:15 - "And saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel." He remained three years in Philadelphia and established his largest congregation in the entire organization, surpassing that of New York City.

The work in Philadelphia grew rapidly and the Prophet, as he was now called, prepared to open businesses for the membership. This was in keeping with his training to "go in business for yourself." Under the leadership of Prophet Crowdy, the Church of God and Saints of Christ owned and operated the following businesses: a newspaper publication, Gospel Herald; and a grocery store, where members bought stocks in the business. The next place of business opened was a restaurant at 1609 Fitzwater Street, Philadelphia, followed by a barber shop.

In his own words

"I, William S. Crowdy, am a Prophet of God sent to the whole world. But it seemed very hard for me to understand that I must talk to the general world at first.

When afterwards I heard a voice speaking unto me; saying, as he had so said unto Ezekiel, "Son of Man, I send thee to the children of Israel, and to all nations of the earth that hath rebelled against me. They and their Fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day; for they are imprudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord God; not Elder Crowdy, or any other man or minister, but thus saith the Lord God who is Supreme above all, an in all; whether they will hear or whether they forbear, yet shall they know there has been a Prophet among them."

The Lord let me know that I should look for trouble and tribulation, but be not afraid of them; neither be afraid of their words; though briars and thorns be with thee. And thou dost dwell among scorpions, be not afraid of their words or be dismayed at their looks and thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.

GOD gave me to understand that he was not sending me to a people of a strange speech nor of a hard language, for as everybody knows that there are not many people in the United States now, but what can understand the English language. Then when he had showed me that he had sent me to a people of that character, they would not have harkened unto me, then he assured me that he had made my face strong against their faces, and my forehead strong against their fore-heads. That is with wisdom and knowledge sufficient to overcome those that come up against me. Then said he unto me, "gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I have commanded thee." Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them, for the Lord has made me through his word, as a defense city and an iron pillar, and a wall against the whole land, and they shall fight against me, but shall not prevail. But the people will try to dodge the words by saying there are not any more Prophets now, or that they are all done away with.

Then the question arises, Who did away with them? They will say Christ did away with them."

REFERENCES and CREDITS:

The Bible Gospel Told - Copyrighted December 16, 1902, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The Life and Works of William Saunders Crowdy - Information adapted from the Life and Works of William Saunders Crowdy, by Beersheba Crowdy Walker, Elfreth J.P. Walker, associate editor. Philadelphia, PA: published by Elfreth J.P. Walker, c1955.
Introduction adapted from The Church of God and Saints of Christ : the rise of Black Jews / Elly M. Wynia. New York : Garland Publishing, 1994. ISBN 0815311362