Charles Albert Tindley

Charles Albert Tindley also known as Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley was born July 7, 1851. He was raised in Berlin, Maryland, USA. Charles was an American Methodist minister and a gospel music composer. He was considered to be free and was often referred to as “The Prince of Preachers”. Charles died July 26, 1933, He was one of the striving to overcome hardship and succeed by the grace of God. Charles father was a slave but his mother was free. Even with Charles being a free man, he grew up with slaves. Charles mother died when he was four, and at five he was separated from his father. Never able to go to school, Charles learned independently and by asking people to tutor him. He taught himself to read and write by age 17. After civil war,
he moved to Philadelphia, where he found employment as a hod carrier. 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. As an adult Charles and his wife Daisy attended the Bainbridge St. Methodist Episcopal Church. He later became the sexton, a job with no salary. Then he soon labored as a janitor at Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church while attending night school. Without a degree, Charles 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, Charles was assigned by his bishop to serve as an itinerant pastor staying a relatively short time at each charge: 1885 to Cape May, New Jersey, 1887 to South Wilmington, Delaware, 1889 to Odessa, Delaware. 1891 to Pocomoke, Maryland, 1894 to Fairmount, Maryland, and 1897 to Wilimington Delaware at Ezion Methodist Church. In 1900 he became the Presiding Elder of the Wilmington District. Following the ordination and the several congregations he served; Charles returned to Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in 1902, not as a janitor but as its Pastor. The church grew rapidly under his leadership, from the 130 members it had when he arrived. The location changed from Bainbridge St. to Broad and Fitzwater Sts. It also was renamed East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church. There the congregation over time grew to a multiracial congregation of 10,000. It included African Americans, Europeans, Jews and Hispanics. The Tindley Temple United Methodist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
Charles was acquainted with politicians and business leaders in Philadelphia.
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. Charles also received donations from businessmen of food for the congregation's ministry of feeding the needy.
Charles 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 he and other leaders, led protesters in a march to the Forrest Theater to protest the showing of the film "Birth of a Nation." They were attacked by whites with clubs, sticks, and bottles. He had many injuries yet they were treated at home.
Charles published his songs beginning in 1901, and published several hymn collections. Those include Soul Echoes in 1905 and a series beginning with New Songs Of Paradise! in 1916. A posthumous New Songs of Paradise, No. 6 in 1941 was the first collection to bring together all. 46 of Tindley's published hymns, though in some cases stanzas that had previously been published were left
out.
Five of his hymns appear in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday” is credited by some observers to be the basis for the U.S. Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome". The song "We Shall Overcome" was composed by artists at the Highlander Folk School in 1947: Ti's song had been brought to the school in the 1930s by tobacco workers from Charleston, South Carolina. Zilphia Horton, cultural worker and educator, taught the song at the school, where others, such as Pete Seeger and Guy Carawan, heard it. They altered Tindley's refrain "I'll Overcome Someday" to "We Shall Overcome" and the song was slowed down to be sung as a march hymn."Stand by Me" is one of the most famous of Charles many gospel songs. Composing the words and the music, the pastor included it in New Songs of Paradise, No. 6, a collection he published in 1905. In conclusion, Charles Albert Tindley was one of the most famous African American Methodist ministers of his era. He has been called "one of the founding fathers of African American gospel music." Charles overcame many personal obstacles to be the pastor of one of the largest congregations on the East Coast.... He was a noted songwriter and composer of gospel hymns and is recognized as one of the founding fathers of American gospel music. Serving the congregation for over 30 years, the church was renamed “Tindley Temple Methodist Church” in 1924 over his objections. Some estimate that the congregation had as many as 12,500 members at the time of Charles’s death.