History
On June 17, 1923, the buildings were dedicated “to the worship of God and the service of humanity.” The outstanding debt of $60,000 was placed in a 12 year mortgage that in four years and five months was paid. At the mortgage burning service, Dr. Powell, Sr. emphasized the faithfulness of the congregation and generosity of friends as key to Abyssinian’s success. “Not a ticket or a dish of ice cream was sold to pay for the erection of Abyssinian Baptist Church and Community House. Every dollar of the money was brought in through tithes and offerings, and God fulfilled His promise by pouring out a blessing upon us that our souls were not able to contain.” No sooner was the Gothic and Tudor structure with its imported stained glass windows and Italian marble pulpit under the sole ownership of the Church that the congregation undertook the purchase of a $40,000 home for the aged on St. Nicholas Avenue. Within the period of 1928 to 1932, the home was fully paid for and the church operated this home for seventeen persons over twelve years. Until Powell, Sr. retired in 1937, a loyal and tithing membership, which had grown to 7,000, paid the salaries of over two dozen full and part-time church workers, handled the operating expenses of the Church and community center, and supported a missionary in Africa. The Church’s motto under Powell, Sr. was apt: “Forward in a larger service.”
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| Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. 1937-1971 |
Born in 1908, the only son of Mattie Fletcher Powell and Adam, Sr., Adam Powell, Jr. succeeded his father at The Abyssinian Baptist Church, serving as pastor from 1937 until 1971. Having begun his service to the Church in 1930 as Assistant Pastor and Director of Abyssinian’s Kitchen and Relief operations that fed and clothed thousands of Harlem’s needy during the Depression era, Reverend Powell, Jr., (affectionately known to many as “Adam”) confidently assumed the responsibilities of pastor. With the assistance of Reverend David Licorish, the younger Powell led Abyssinian’s 8,000 to 10,000 membership to wider avenues of witness and service as the self-proclaimed “church of the masses.”
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| Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. receives, on behalf of the church, a golden Coptic cross from Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia (1954). |
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. masterfully combined the Christian message of justice and equality with the militant oratory of a leader over a political movement of African-Americans, from all classes, who wanted liberation and equal rights. As a city councilman (elected in 1941), the Congressman of the 22nd District (elected in 1944 serving 14 terms in the House of Representatives), and as a pastor, Adam was very much a part of the Black Revolution. He successfully wielded power as Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, managing federal legislation that supported the needs of African-Americans, and generating or amending nearly sixty public laws to benefit Blacks, the aged, handicapped, Hispanic-Americans, women, and poor whites in the areas of fair employment practices, public education and public school aid, manpower development and training, discrimination against women, increased minimum wage, and the war on poverty. In all this, Adam Jr. challenged his congregation continually to be a “light” and the “salt of the earth.” As he put it: “This…is an unparalleled moment for the black man’s church to really be the leadership of this people’s revolution. The black man’s church has always been a church of the masses. I think it is time for the masses in the church to insist…that their leadership of the pew and the pulpit should be vitally a part of the Black Revolution.”
