William J. Seymour was one of the most respected early
Pentecostal leaders. Although not affiliated with the Church of
God in Christ, he was used to spearhead the movement that
eventually empowered our church. He played an important
role in the Azusa Street revival.
William J. Seymour, an African-American, was born May 2, 1870,
in Centerville, Louisiana, to former slaves Simon and Phillis
Seymour, who raised him as a Baptist. Later, while living in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he came into contact with holiness teachings
through Martin Wells Knapp’s God’s Revivalist movement and
Daniel S. Warner’s Church of God Reformation movement,
otherwise known as the Evening Light Saints. Believing that
they were living in the twilight of human history, these
Christians believed that the Spirit’s outpouring would precede
the rapture of the Church. They deeply impressed the young
Seymour.
congregation pastored by Lucy F. Farrow, a former governess in the household of
Charles F. Parham. Parham led the midwestern Apostolic Faith movement, the
original name of the Pentecostal movement, that had begun in his Bethel Bible
School in Topeka, Kansas, in January 1901. By 1905, he had relocated his base of
operations to the Houston area where he conducted revivals and started another
Bible school. Farrow arranged for Seymour to attend classes. However, because of
the “Jim Crow” segregation laws of the time, Seymour had to listen to Parham’s
lectures while sitting apart from the other students. Seymour accepted Parham’s
view of baptism in the Holy Spirit—the belief that in every instance, God would give
intelligible languages—speaking in tongues to believers for missionary evangelism.
Neeley Terry, an African-American and member of the new congregation led by
Hutchinson in Los Angeles, visited Houston in 1905 and was impressed when she
heard Seymour preach. Returning home, she recommended him to Hutchinson, since
the church was seeking a pastor. As a result, Seymour accepted the invitation to
shepherd the small flock. With some financial assistance from Parham, he traveled
by train westward and arrived in Los Angeles in February 1906.
Azusa Street Revival
Seymour immediately encountered resistance when, just 2 days after arriving, he
began preaching to his new congregation that speaking in tongues was the Bible
evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. On the following Sunday, March 4, he
returned to the mission and found that Hutchinson had padlocked the door.
Condemnation also came from the Holiness Church Association of Southern
California with which the church had affiliation. Not everyone in the congregation,
however, was troubled by Seymour’s teaching. Undaunted, Seymour, staying at the
home of church member Edward S. Lee, accepted Lee’s invitation to hold Bible
studies and prayer meetings there. After this, he went to the home of Richard and
Ruth Asberry at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street. Five weeks later, Lee became the first
to speak in tongues. Seymour then shared Lee’s testimony at a gathering on North
Bonnie Brae and soon many began to speak in tongues.
214 North Bonnie Brae Street, Los Angeles, ca. 1906.
Word of these events traveled quickly in both the African-American and white
communities. For several nights, speakers preached on the porch to the crowds on
the street below. Believers from Hutchinson’s mission, First New Testament Church,
and various holiness congregations began to pray for the Pentecostal baptism.
(Hutchinson herself was eventually baptized in the Spirit as was Seymour himself.)
Finally, after the front porch collapsed, the group rented the former Stevens African
Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church at 312 Azusa Street in early April. A Los Angeles
newspaper referred to it as a “tumble down shack.” It had recently been used as a
livery stable and tenement house. Discarded lumber and plaster littered the large,
barn-like room on the ground floor.
The meetings at the Apostolic Faith Mission quickly caught the attention of the press
due to the unusual nature of the worship. Between 300 and 350 people could get
into the whitewashed 40- by 60-foot wood frame structure, with many others
occasionally forced to stand outside. Church services were held on the first floor
where the benches were placed in a rectangular pattern. Some of the benches were
simply planks put on top of empty nail kegs. There was no elevated platform. There
was no pulpit at the beginning of the revival.
Although several people could be considered leaders, the best known was the
unassuming William J. Seymour. Frank Bartleman, an early participant, recalled that
“Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe boxes, one on top of the
other. He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting, in prayer.
There was no pride there…. In that old building, with its low rafters and bare floors,
God took strong men and women to pieces, and put them together again, for His
glory…. The religious ego preached its own funeral sermon quickly.”