Daddy Grace: A Celebrity Preacher and His House of Prayer

3 Led by a Convicted Man

Led by a Convicted Man The growing strength of Daddy Grace’s membership base sustained him not only during the rocky and unpredictable early years of his ministry, but also in times of crisis. This loyalty was best exempli- fied by House of Prayer members in Hampton Roads in the early 1930s. Hampton Roads, a region comprised of several towns and cities in Virginia , lies in the southeast part of the state where the James, Elizabeth, and Nansemond Rivers coalesce and the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The region was first settled in the early years of American colonization and came to revolve around facets of a maritime economy. With ebbs and flows of employment, many African Americans migrated in and out of the region during the 1920s and 1930s. During these years Daddy Grace spent considerable time in Hampton Roads, first in the city of Newport News and later in other parts of the area, increasing his membership base. At that time Newport News occupied only a tiny portion of the geographical area it encompasses today, but it was nestled among the numerous thriving communities lining the northern part of the coast. The city’s economic value to the area was growing because it had become both a railroad hub and a center for shipbuilding. The approximately thirty-five thousand residents of Newport News were racially and religiously varied, but the town was strictly segregated and African Americans were ghettoized on the south side of the railroad tracks. Without a serious business district of their own, Black residents had little economic independence; even for news, they depended on the Journal and Guide, an African American newspaper from Norfolk, which at that time gave scant coverage to their side of the bay. Despite these obstacles, Newport News was the only part of the region that experienced an overall increase in its African American population during the 1930s, and as a result that decade saw the Black community becoming stronger both socially and economically. Eventually, even the Journal and Guide saw fit to print a weekly “Peninsula” edition of the 3 75 paper, which was dedicated to the cities of Newport News and Hampton . However, when Daddy Grace was first starting to proselytize, Newport News was still only a blossoming small town without the apparatus of a full-fledged city.1 Meanwhile, across Hampton Roads Bay and a few miles down the Elizabeth River, Norfolk already had several thriving African American neighborhoods. With one hundred thirty thousand people, Norfolk was a significantly larger city with a multitude of industries that attracted job seekers. African American residents, who made up 34 percent of the population, worked mostly as unskilled laborers. A small group of merchants and professionals fostered a Black business district on Church Street that was sometimes called the “Harlem of the South.” A busy thoroughfare, Church Street was lined with stores, banks, places of worship of every kind, and entertainment houses ranging from proper theaters to clandestine gambling rooms. Though economically Norfolk experienced more fluctuations than Newport News, partly due to haphazard infrastructures, the size of the city meant it offered opportunities to African Americans that did not yet exist for residents across the bay.2 Daddy Grace first went to Hampton Roads in 1926, and he attempted to launch a revival in Newport News. He said that although many people in the city were interested in his work, because he held mixed-race meetings, he faced strong opposition and could not establish a church there. Nonetheless, he added Newport News to his traveling route, returning each year to further his work. In 1927 he began preparations to build a church on 17th Street between Jefferson and Madison Avenues, a short walk from Pinkett’s Beach where he later conducted baptisms.3 In the autumn of that year Grace added Norfolk to his southern circuit. Right away he opened a House of Prayer referred to as “Tents Hall” on Elmwood Avenue just off of Church Street, thus planting himself in the hub of Black Norfolk life. The following summer he tried to add a third Hampton Roads congregation, this time setting up a tent on Mallory Avenue in the nearby city of Hampton. However, within days of its assembly, three young men committed arson and burned it to the ground. Their motives were unclear, but newspapers reported that it was because they opposed Grace’s arrival. Although he did not try to establish a church in Hampton again...