EVEN during the Revolutionary War, George Leile, a Baptist slave who had been freed by his owner, preached to slaves in Savannah, Ga. From that time on up the Negro pulpit has been wielding among the masses of Colored people in America an influence for good that is the first of all influences that has the greatest hold upon the Race.
Some of the other early preachers who helped to lay the rock foundation of this ruling influence were Lemuel Haynes of Connecticut, a wonderful orator and honored veteran of the Revolutionary War; Richard Allen and Absolem Jones of Pennsylvania, Allen having founded the famous old Bethel Church in Philadelphia and was ordained in 1816 the first bishop of the A. M. E. Church; Amanda Smith of Maryland, who won thousands of Colored and white converts over to God as a result of her powerful sermons and temperance lectures in England, Scotland, Africa and India as well as in America; John Chavis of North Carolina, who on account of his superior education won fame and recognition as a school teacher of rich white Southern boys and girls and also as a powerful pulpit preacher to enslaved men and women of his own race; and John Gloucester of Tennessee and Pennsylvania, who was the first Colored minister of a Presbyterian church in the United States. Thus were the ways those early God-Fearing men and women of days before and right after the Civil War blazed the plain guiding marks in the forests of ministry, in order that the clear-sighted and sure-footed gospel leaders who have since followed them might have no trouble in choosing the right paths through which to lead their trusting and loyal congregations.
The following is an article quoted from the August 6, 1921, issue of the Chicago Defender:
“C. T. Walker, Noted Pastor, Dies in South.”—“Augusta, Ga., Aug. 5—The Rev. Charles T. Walker, often referred to as the greatest preacher of his time, died Friday July 29, at his home here.
“Dr. Walker was vice-president of the National Baptist convention of the United States and pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist church here for the past forty years, excepting five years when he was pastor of the Mount Olivet Baptist church, New York City.
“He founded the Y.M.C.A. in New York City for our people, traveled extensively in Europe and the Holy Land, and was the author of a number of books of travel as well as sermons.
“As an evangelist, he was widely known, and no other minister ever drew larger crowds when he spoke. His church in this city was often visited by Northern winter tourists, among them former President Taft and John D. Rockefeller. It was the latter who paid an artist to paint pictures of the Christ Child on the walls of Rev. Walker’s church.”
“To Pastor A Large White Church”
“Toronto, Can.—To fill the pulpit of one of the largest Presbyterian churches (white) in Toronto for five weeks with one of our ministers is the interesting departure from the general rule of supply for the summer months that Knox church is making this year. For last week and all of August, Rev. Joseph J. Hill of Roawohe Baptist Church, Hot Springs, Ark., will occupy Knox church pulpit. Dr. Hill has been a professor of science in a southern university, and is a graduate of the Academy of Music. He is a quiet, appealing and persuasive preacher with a message all his own, which he delivers with great eloquence. During the summer holidays, last year, he preached in the Moose Jaw Methodist church, with a seating capacity of 1,000 which was crowded at all services.”
The above is extracted from the Cleveland Gazette issued August 6, 1921.