Abyssinian Baptist Church

History[edit]

The congregation began after an incident in 1808,^[6] when visiting Ethiopian seamen and free African-American parishioners left the First Baptist Church in protest over being restricted to racially segregated seating.^[3] They named their new congregation the Abyssinian Baptist Church after the historic name of Ethiopia.^[7]


The congregation worshiped at a number of places: first on the corner of William and Frankfort Streets,^[8] then at 44 Anthony (Worth) Street until the mortgage upon the church was foreclosed upon in 1854,^[9] at which time the congregation worshipped temporarily at 356 Broadway. Then in 1856 they established themselves at 166 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, an area then sometimes called "little Africa."^[10] It was during their time here that the church split into two "warring" factions, one for the Rev. William M. Spelman, who had been with them since 1855, and one desiring his removal.^[11] In 1885, Rev. Spelman was ousted from the pulpit, at which time he and his followers went to another church on 37th Street.^[12] In 1902 the congregation moved uptown with the movement of the African American population, to 242 West 40th Street, and from there to a tent pitched next to the future site of Marcus Garvey's Liberty Hall in Harlem, where the size of the congregation increased dramatically thanks to the preaching of Adam Clayton Powell Sr., who had become the pastor in 1908.^[3] The church purchased property on the same street for a new sanctuary,^[7] paid for by tithes and offerings.^[6]


Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the future prominent German theologian, anti-Nazi activist and martyr, arrived in New York in 1930 - then a young student doing postgraduate study at the Union Theological Seminary. Frank Fisher, a black fellow-seminarian, introduced Bonhoeffer to the Abyssinian Church, where Bonhoeffer taught Sunday school and formed a lifelong love for African-American spirituals, a collection of which he took back to Germany. He heard Adam Clayton Powell Sr. preach the Gospel of Social Justice, and became sensitive to not only social injustices experienced by minorities but also the ineptitude of the church to bring about integration.^[13] It was there that Bonhoeffer began to see things "from below"—from the perspective of those who suffer oppression. He observed, "Here one can truly speak and hear about sin and grace and the love of God... the Black Christ is preached with rapturous passion and vision." Later Bonhoeffer referred to his impressions abroad as the point at which he "turned from phraseology to reality."^[14]—themes which were on Bonhoeffer's return to Germany manifested in his outspoken opposition to the Nazi regime and especially to its persecution of the Jews, and for which Bonhoeffer eventually paid with his life.


By 1930, the church had 13,000 members, making it the largest African-American church in New York City, and the largest Baptist congregation in the world.^[3] Powell handed the reins of the church to his son Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1937. Powell became the first black Congressman from New York City, and served 14 terms in the United States House of Representatives.^[4][2] Powell's "charisma, power, and notoriety", as well as his "spellbinding" preaching^[4] were the driving force behind the church's significant influence in the African American community at the time.


The funeral of David Baldwin, preacher and step-father of author James Baldwin, took place in the Abyssinian Baptist Church, during the wake of the 1943 Harlem riot. James Baldwin wrote of attending his father's funeral in his most famous essay, 1955's Notes of a Native Son.^[15]


In 1972, Samuel DeWitt Proctor became senior pastor and a prominent voice in religious and national matters.^[3] In 1989, Calvin O. Butts became senior pastor and followed in this tradition, serving until his death in 2022. ^[16]