Father Divine’s Harlem Peace Center and Food
Father Divine receiving a dish at a banquet, circa 1930, Courtesy of The New York Public Library
Dr. Frederick Douglass Opie shares oral histories from Harlem residents about Father Divine. Every Sunday during the Great Depression the controversial New York-based evangelist Father Divine (aka the Reverend General Jealous Divine and aka George Baker) fed starving interracial groups by the hundreds for free in Harlem, while many other black preachers ignored their flocks’ hunger pains. Most African-American urban clergy avoided sermons that addressed racism, poverty, and the social conditions of blacks in America. Instead, their sermons focused on the need for spiritual conversion and life after death. Father Divine talked about conversion, but he also denounced racism and the inability of a country blessed with material abundance to feed its citizens.
