Dowie's Zion: A haven for African-Americans?

Zion sign

James Brister was a rare anomaly as an 1881 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania dental school. He was the first African American to graduate from the university. At that time, The School of Dental Medicine was only three years old and its first graduating class numbered only 53 students including students from around the country, Europe and South America.

James Brister was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 7, 1858. His father, a dentist, practiced his profes­sion in that city for over 50 years. The son was graduated from the Institute for Colored Youths (a Quaker institution in Philadelphia), at the age of 18.

Black Zion Policeman

The following year he entered the Dental Department of the University of Pennsylvania from which he obtained his degree in 1881. He began the practice of dentistry in Delaware. He was a member of the Republican State Executive Committee of Delaware for two years. In 1896 he was married, and with his wife, joined Dowie’s Christian Catholic Church in 1900 and followed him to the new city 42 miles north of Chicago – Zion, Illinois.

He was a member of the City Council of Zion City for three years, and continued to be active in civic affairs in Dowie’s theocratic government. He also served as a member of the Board of Education. Historical account taken from John J. Halsey's, A HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY ILLINOIS.)

Brister was one of many African Americans who somehow came across Dowie’s “Leaves of Healing” publication and became convinced that he would lead them to the Promised Land.

Brister eventually opened his dentist practice in Zion (Dowie would not allow medical doctors in Zion, but dentist were not considered to be physicians of the body).

During this period African Americans began to migrate to Zion including Frank and Louise Hartfield. Frank's grandparents were slaves in Nashville, Tennessee. Louise (Woodson) Hartfield, Ruth's paternal grand­mother, escaped from slavery through the Underground Railroad through Ohio. She settled in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. That is where Mrs. Hicks' mother was born. Her mother moved from Canada to Chicago where she became involved in the Dowie movement. Joe Hartfield was the first black male born in Zion, Illinois.

William Elliott was also among the first African Americans in Zion. Mr. Elliott had served in the Union Army and had rescued his wife from slavery.

Theories abound as to why early African Americans were swayed by the powerful message of Dowie’s unique brand of Christianity. To answer the question we must take a look at the political and racial dynamics that were being played out in America.

America was recovering from the bitter and bloody civil war that left a nation divided and there was the continuing question of what to do about the colored race? According to US Census records in 1880 the population of the United States was 50,155,783. The then known black population was listed at 6,580,793 or 13.1 percent.

Although the law had emancipated African Americans, white Americans continued to abuse and deny basic rights guaranteed to blacks under the constitution.

At the same time, southern states enacted “Jim Crow” segregation laws designed to discriminate and stop the black vote. There were horrific lynchings and murders of African Americans throughout the nation with the rise of the Klu Klux Klan.

African Americans were dismayed and many delivered sermons from the pulpit that stirred and rallied blacks:

“On these points the friends of the black men are substantially united. But when all these things have been secured, what do we propose to do then, in order to promote the highest welfare of the race, what does the law of Christ require, what does the Providence of God indicate as the ultimate purpose of our efforts, and as the final position which the colored race will occupy in the land?

“To accomplish this, those who adopt the theory would gradually break up all separate organizations for the colored people, and in the churches, schools, colleges and associations of all kinds, educational and religious as well as political, merge them in the surrounding mass of the whites. Such persons would have no separate colored schools, seminaries or associations or churches. “

Courtesy of the Library of Congress: The duty which the colored people owe to themselves. : A sermon delivered at Metzerott hall, Washington, D.C., November 17, 1867, by Rev. Dr. Boynton.

African Americans continued to cling to Christianity despite the fact that many of the worst perpetrators of crimes against blacks were Christians. It was in this chaos and racial ugliness that Dr. John A. Dowie preached a doctrine of equality for all and love for all people of color.

Dowie’s message had a special appeal to African Americans. While Many clergy within religious denominations actively promoted the idea that all Christians were equal in the sight of God, a message that provided hope and sustenance to former slaves and freedmen.

Dowie’s evangelicalism needs to be understood not only as a religious movement, but also as a social movement. As such, it was an integral part of a broader organizational revolution that transformed nineteenth-century American society.

Dowie’s message had a special appeal for many Americans who were searching for the non-traditional in a sea of new organizations--religious sects and denominations, voluntary societies of various sorts, and political parties--to give needed structure and direction to their lives.

For African Americans the destruction of their lives led to traditional churches and religious organizations that were separate and distinct from the mainstream white-based faiths.

The evangelicals, like Dowie, were busy during this period grinding out printed pamphlets, booklets that could reach the masses throughout the nation’s fertile ground for believer’s searching for something to believe in again.

Religious recruitment was intense by Dowie’s brand of Christianity had a unique attraction in faith healing which was designed to draw people through the miracle of personal testimony and the power of the printing press. It didn’t take long for the message to spread to African Americans who were converted to a new relationship with God.

Dowie’s brand of Christianity also brought African Americans into a new and powerful institutional fabric that provided them with personal discipline, a sense of fellowship, and channeled their benevolent obligations in appropriate directions.

Dowie took a strong stance on racial relations as recorded in author Philip L. Cook’s book, “Zion City Illinois: Twentieth Century Utopia.”

“The General Overseer of the Christian Catholic Church wanted it understood that his idea for society was one of Christian brotherhood. In a sermon in June, 19m, the preacher said: "the lie that the African race is, per se-that is, in itself, and of God's ordination-an inferior race, has got to be taken back by every South­ern man and woman, and every Northern man and woman, for it is contrary to God's word, and contrary to facts."

“When Senator Ben Tillman took exception to the visit of Booker T. Washington to the White House in 1901, Dowie, preaching in the Chicago Auditorium, vigorously denounced the Southern politician and said that he should be expelled from the Senate. When he asked all those who agreed with him to stand, an estimated five thousand did so. As a remedy for the race conflict, the preacher prescribed a national compulsory system of education that would be free for every child in the nation.

“The Zion press made it a point to publicize the frequent Negro lynchings at the turn of the century. Over twenty-five hundred lynchings, mainly in the South, and mostly of blacks, occurred between 1884 and 1900. In 1901 alone, one hundred blacks were lynched. The Zion press also noted, approvingly, blacks who were successful in enterprise. Memorial Day and the Fourth of July were occasions for speeches on the rights of blacks. The Declaration of Independence was examined and analyzed as to the concepts of "freedom" and "equality."

Although the black migration was a mere trickle to Zion in 1901, it is estimated that more than 200 African Americans took up residence in Zion. A visitor to Zion, John M. Allison, who was a black deputy sheriff in Hennipen County, Minnesota, made the following observation about Dowie:

“I consider President Roosevelt a very brave man, but...I call Dr. Dowie the most courageous man on earth today.” – Zion Banner, 1904.

Dowie’s progress views on race and the marriages of blacks to whites were not held by most of his followers but no one openly stood up and castigated him for his views. As one writer said: “As far as Dowie is concerned there is only one race, the human race.”

Today, in Zion, descendants of the Dowie’s Christian Catholic Church, now known as the Community Church of Christ, continue to wield power and influence in city politics. And for the first time, an African American, Laine Harrison, was overwhelmingly elected mayor. His great-great grandparents migrated to Zion as followers of Dowie. And according to Laine, his grandparents also helped to found the Booker T. Washington Club at 2103 Gabriel Avenue, now occupied by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It is registered as a Lake County Historical Site.

Hasan