Online Excerpts About Rev. Charles Albert Tindley, Pastor, Social Activist, & Composer Who Is Known As "The Grandfather Of African American Gospel" American

Edited by Azizi Powell

Update: August 31, 2020- Video added

This pancocojams post is part of an ongoing series about African American Gospel music composers and some of the songs they composed.

This post presents three online excerpts about Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley (July 7, 1851 – July 26, 1933). A list of five of Rev. Tindley's best known songs are included in the Addendum to this post. A YouTube video about Charles Albert Tindley is also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Charles Albert Tinley for his religious and cultural legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-storm-is-passing-over-beams-of.html for the pancocojams post entitled "The Storm Is Passing Over", "Beams Of Heaven" And Three Other YouTube Videos Of Gospel Songs Composed By Rev. Charles Albert Tindley".

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ONLINE EXCERPTS ABOUT CHARLES ALBERT TINDLEY
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purpose only.

Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Albert_Tindley
"Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley (July 7, 1851 – July 26, 1933) was an  American Methodist minister and gospel music composer.

Often referred to as "The Prince of Preachers", he educated himself, became a minister and founded one of the largest Methodist congregations serving the African-American community on the East Coast of the United States.

Tindley's father was a slave, but his mother was free. Tindley himself was thus considered to be free, but even so he grew up among slaves. After the Civil War, he moved to Philadelphia, where he found employment as a hod carrier (brick carrier)....

Never able to go to school, Tindley learned independently and by asking people to tutor him. He enlisted the help of a Philadelphia synagogue on North Broad St. to learn Hebrew and learned Greek by taking a correspondence course through the Boston Theological School.^[2] Without any degree, Tindley was qualified for ordination in the Methodist Episcopal Church by examination, with high ranking scores. He was ordained as a Deacon in the Delaware Conference in 1887 and as an elder in 1889. As was the practice of the ME church, Tindley was assigned by his bishop to serve as an itinerant pastor staying a relatively short time at each charge...

Tindley then became the pastor of the same church at which he had been a janitor. Under his leadership, the church grew rapidly from the 130 members it had when he arrived. In 1906 the congregation moved from Bainbridge St. to Broad and Fitzwater Sts. and was renamed East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church. The property was purchased from the Westminster Presbyterian church and seated 900, though it was soon filled to overflowing. The congregation over time grew to a multiracial congregation of 10,000.[1]After his death, the church was renamed "Tindley Temple." The Tindley Temple United Methodist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

 [...]

Tindley was acquainted with politicians and business leaders in Philadelphia, including John Wanamaker. He worked with business leaders to assist his members in finding jobs. He also encouraged members to start their own businesses and purchase homes. The church formed the East Calvary Building and Loan Association to offer mortgages.[5] Tindley also solicited donations from businessmen of food for the congregation's ministry of feeding the needy.

Tindley objected to social events that he considered degrading, including the 1912 Cake Walk and Ball, and The Soap Box Minstrels show at the Academy of Music on Broad and Locust Streets. In 1915, Tindley and other leaders, including Rev. Wesley Graham, led protesters in a march to the Forrest Theater to protest against the showing of D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation. They were attacked by whites with clubs, sticks, and bottles. Graham was hospitalized; Tindley's injuries were treated at home.[6]

Tindley was given a Doctor of Divinity Degree by Bennett College and Morgan College in Baltimore Md.[7]

Tindley was a noted songwriter and composer of gospel hymns and is recognized as one of the founding fathers of American gospel music. Five of his hymns appear in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday"[8] is credited by observers to be the basis for the U.S. Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."[9] Another of his notable hymns is "(Take Your Burden to the Lord and) Leave It There" (1916), which has been included in several hymnals and has been recorded by numerous artists in a variety of styles. Others are "Stand by Me" (1905) and "What Are They Doing in Heaven?" (1901)"...

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Excerpt #2
From https://anglicancompass.com/the-story-of-our-hymns-the-storm-is-passing-over/

The Story of Our Hymns: The Storm Is Passing Over

By Keisha Valentina|August 3rd, 2020
"Charles Albert Tindley was born in Berlin, Maryland, on July 7, 1851, to Charles and Hester Tindley. His father was enslaved, and his mother free. Hester died when Charles was very young and he was taken in by his aunt in order to keep his freedom. He worked as a hired hand wherever his father could place him to help the family. He received no formal schooling, but had such an interest in learning he taught himself to read by gathering scraps of newspaper he found alongside the road or in trash bins.

One Sunday he snuck into a nearby church to hear the preaching. When the minister invited all the children to sit up front, he bravely took his place among them despite the shock and discouragement of white parishioners. He was so compelled by the preaching and singing that he began to study even more.

[...]

Methodist ministers who are newly ordained often get moved every few years. Charles presided over several churches before eventually moving back to Philadelphia in 1904 to pastor the very church where he started as a janitor. His return to the congregation as pastor was met with mixed emotions. Yet the 150th-anniversary journal of the congregation states that

“All were pleasantly surprised, for as Tindley mounted the rostrum, wearing a Prince Albert Coat—then the garb of many African American Protestant preachers—he had the dignified bearing acquired during his previous appointments. They were further surprised when Tindley delivered a masterful, soul gripping sermon that brought loud Amens and praise God exclamations from his listeners.”

[...]

Often called the “Grandfather of black gospel music,” Tindley’s hymns focus on Christ’s saving promises amid life’s troubling storms. Two of his most well-known hymns are “We’ll Understand It Better By and By” and “Stand By Me.” His hymn “I’ll Overcome Someday” was the inspiration for the protest and Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.”...
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Excerpt #3

Excerpt #3
From https://hymnary.org/person/Tindley_CA

"Charles Albert Tindley was born in Berlin, Maryland, July 7, 1851; son of Charles and Hester Tindley. His father was a slave, and his mother was free. Hester died when he was very young; he was taken in my his mother’s sister Caroline Miller Robbins in order to keep his freedom. It seems that he was expected to work to help the family. In his Book of Sermons (1932), he speaks of being “hired out” as a young boy, “wherever father could place me.” He married Daisy Henry when he was seventeen. Together they had eight children, some of whom would later assist him with the publication of his hymns.

Tindley was largely self-taught throughout his lifetime. He learned to read mostly on his own. After he and Daisy moved to Philadelphia in 1875, he took correspondence courses toward becoming a Methodist minister. He did this while working as a sexton (building caretaker) for the East Bainbridge Street Church. Beginning in 1885, he was appointed by the local bishop to serve two or three-year terms at a series of churches, until coming full circle to become pastor at East Bainbridge in 1902. Under his leadership, the church grew rapidly. They relocated in 1904 to the East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church, then again in 1924 to the new Tindley Temple, where the membership roll blossomed to about ten thousand.

Tindley was known for being a captivating preacher, and for also taking an active role in the betterment of the people in his community. His songs were an outgrowth of his preaching ministry, often introduced during his sermons. Tindley was able to draw people of multiple races to his church ministry; likewise, his songs have been adopted and proliferated by white and black churches alike.

The songs of Charles Tindley were published cumulatively in two editions of Soul Echoes (1905, 1909) and six editions of New Songs of Paradise (1916-1941).

His wife Daisy died in 1924, before the completion of the Tindley Temple. He remarried in 1927 to Jenny Cotton. Charles A. Tindley died July 26, 1933."-snip-
This article includes a long list of Charles Albert Tindley's songs.

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ADDENDUM- FIVE SONGS COMPOSED BY CHARLES ALBERT TINDLEY (with composition dates)
1. "Beams Of Heaven", 1905

**
2.  "I'll Overcome Someday", 1900 
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This song is the basis for the United States civil rights song "We Shall Overcome".

**

"Stand By Me", 1905

**
"The Storm Is Passing Over"

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This song is also known now as "Encourage My Soul" although Tindley's words were "O Courage My Soul".
**
We'll Understand It Better By And By", 1905

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UPDATE: Charles Albert Tindley



Museum of the Bible, Feb. 23, 2017

Charles Albert Tindley, whose father was a slave, became one of the prolific gospel songwriters of his time! Although he didn’t attend school, he learned Greek through a correspondence course with Boston School of Theology. Later he became pastor of the East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia—a church where he had been a janitor—one that during his tenure grew to over 12,000 members. Largely self-taught, he said: “I made a rule to learn at least one new thing a day.” Reading more than 8,000 books, and also taking Hebrew at a synagogue in Philadelphia, he also wrote hymns with biblical references, including, "I'll Overcome Some Day"—the basis for the civil rights "anthem": "We Shall Overcome!"
 
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