Abyssinian Baptist Church

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The Abyssinian Baptist Church is among the most famous of the many churches in Harlem, New York City.

The church traces its roots to 1808, when black parishioners left the First Baptist Church of New York in protest over racially segregated seating.^[1] In 1908, Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. became pastor of the church, and in 1923, he oversaw its move uptown to its current location on West 138th Street in Harlem.^[1] By the time he handed the reins of the church to his son, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., in 1935, the Abyssinian Baptist Church was the largest Protestant congregation in America.

In the early 1930s Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer attended the church on occasions, and this experience gave him insights about the real struggle for social justice, when the Nazis took power in his German homeland.

It was an important location for non-secular music in the Harlem Renaissance, and remains a center for the Harlem gospel tradition. Fats Waller's father was once minister at the church.^[2] Among many important events there, the church conducted the wedding of Nat King Cole and his bride Maria and the funeral of "The Father of Blues," W.C. Handy in 1958.

Today, under the direction of Rev. Calvin O. Butts, the church is a vital political, social, and religious institution in New York.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b The Manhattan African-American History & Culture Guide, Museum of the City of New York
^ "The New Heyday of Harlem," Tessa Souter, The Independent on Sunday, June 8, 1997