Daddy Grace: A Celebrity Preacher and His House of Prayer

Introduction

Introduction The reporter on assignment for the Associated Negro Press described the scene he witnessed in Philadelphia: A week-long shouting meeting was climaxed Sunday by the United House of Prayer as Daddy (“He’s So Sweet”) Grace baptized thirty white-clad converts with a fire hose at 16th and Christian Streets. With three bands on hand to assure jumping dance music, Grace first made a 20-minute speech. He reminded them that he flew to the South Pacific, stopped the Japanese-American war in 1945, and flew right back. This he did overnight. And his followers, who were spotted throughout the huge crowd, said, “Yes he did.” As Grace raised his hands, with fingernails from one to three inches, and fingers graced with diamonds and sapphires, local firemen turned on the hose. . . . As soon as the water struck them, the converts began dancing, shivering, twisting, prancing. . . . They screamed into the water, praising the sweet name of Daddy while Daddy stood safely under an umbrella and said, “Ain’t I pretty?”1 Decades after it was written, this record of a United House of Prayer baptismal event stands as a timeless description of Bishop Grace, the founder of the United House of Prayer for All People who became a minor American celebrity. It is timeless because it captures so many of the pervasive mythological themes about both Grace and his church members : the leader’s extravagance, his claims to fantastic power, his constant focus on himself, and the worshippers who were not afraid of being a public spectacle with their vibrant praise of “Sweet Daddy.” The word “mythological” refers not to the truth value in these themes, but to their dominance of public perceptions about Grace and his church both during his lifetime and in the collective memory of American religious history.2 During the four decades of Grace’s religious leadership, the United 1 House of Prayer frequently attracted mockery from those outside of its ranks. Observers ridiculed distinctive features of the church including the exuberant style of worship, the extensive line of goods for sale named after Daddy Grace, the pomp of annual convocation ceremonies, members’ passionate devotion to the church and to the bishop, and the intricate network of church clubs, each with its own uniform. Grace himself received national exposure in both academic and tabloid form. At times he courted this publicity, while on other occasions it was unwelcome . In addition to attention-getting maneuvers such as wearing flamboyant clothing and jewelry, purchasing high profile real estate, and conducting baptisms in city streets with a fire hose, Grace reputedly accepted massive donations from poverty-stricken followers and used the money to live lavishly. From scholars to newspaper reporters, few hesitated to judge both Grace and his followers negatively. In an early academic example, anthropologist Arthur Huff Fauset characterized House of Prayer members as “gullible” and suggested outsiders should take pity on them and “smile at these manifestations and ascribe them to the child-like nature of the Negro which is attracted to these uniforms, and other baubles.”3 Popular writers crafted descriptions of Grace as “a brown-skinned P. T. Barnum who cracked the whip in a circus of gaudy costumes, wildly gyrating acrobats and brass bands that played as if God were a Cosmic Hipster.”4 More recently, in his study of messianic myth among African Americans Wilson Jeremiah Jones compared Grace with Father Divine and Prophet Jones, saying they were all “opportunistic , egotistical charlatans, who elevated themselves for purposes of self-aggrandizement.”5 Even a former member, in his apostate text, declared : “The House of Prayer still stands as a constant reminder of the gullible nature of mankind.”6 These examples demonstrate that the House of Prayer was often perceived as an illegitimate religious institution , and this mischaracterization was not without consequence. Grace was rebuffed by other pastors when he made ecumenical overtures, he and his followers were sometimes hounded by news reporters who wanted to substantiate outrageous headlines, and the church was usually designated a “cult” in the most pejorative sense of the word. It was assumed by many that Grace was the charismatic glue that held his church together, and that once he was gone it would disintegrate . After his death in early 1960, some predicted that followers would be lured away by any new leader who came along. Never having 2 | Introduction taken the church seriously to...