Keep your hand on the plow--hold on: black Baptist women in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: as I look about me today in this veiled world of mine, despite the noisier and more spectacular advance of my brothers, I instinctively feel and know that it is the five million women of my race who really count.

Black women (and women whose grandmothers were black) are ... the main pillars of those social settlements which we call churches and they have with small doubt raised three-fourths of our church property. (1)

W.E.B. DuBois used these words to describe the importance of black women in the life of the black church. Although his statement did not refer to a specific denomination, it aptly described women in the black Baptist church today as well as yesterday. Black women represent a preponderance of its membership, financial strength, and missionary force. (2) Black Baptist women, in the wake of racial and gender discrimination, have long contributed to the advancement of both the black church and black community.

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of the history of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; to examine the roles of its black church women; to understand the creation of women-centered organizations; and to explore the strides made by black women as members of the clergy and to appraise attitudes toward them. In doing so, we will see that Ebenezer's black women have followed the great spiritual injunction and have kept their hands on the plow and held on.

Ebenezer Baptist Church is the oldest black Baptist church in Pittsburgh. Early in 1874, a group of ten black Christians, eight men and two women, gathered for weekly prayer meetings each Wednesday night at the home of Mary A. Kendall. (3) When the intensity of these gatherings and prayers increased, a church was organized, and Henry Marshall was installed as its first pastor on August 10, 1875. As the church rapidly took form, so did the exclusion of black women. For example, the earliest deacon board had four male members, and the trustee board was comprised of five men. The superintendent of the Sunday School and the church clerk were also men. Thus, in Ebenezer Baptist Church's early years, every leadership position was held by a man. The exclusion of women happened despite the fact that the founding of the church included the active participation and leadership of two women: Eliza Fisher and Mary Kendall.

During the pastorates of Ebenezer's first seven ministers, only five women were ever chosen to represent the church at various conventions. (4) The women were relegated to the traditional roles of church women: raising funds, assisting the pastor, singing, praying, teaching Sunday School, caring for the sick, and training children--all duties which were within the traditional woman's sphere. (5) Nonetheless, the women were crucial to broadening the public arm of the church, making it the most powerful institution of racial self-help in the black community. (6)

In 1915, when J. C. Austin, a graduate of Temple College and Virginia Theological Seminary and College, assumed the pastorate, the roles of Ebenezer women began to change significantly. Three factors contributed to the changing roles: a speech delivered by Nannie Burroughs at the National Baptist Convention in September 1900 entitled "How the Sisters are Hindered From Helping"; Austin's growing ministry; and the onset of the Great Migration in 1914. (7)

Burroughs, who was responsible for and should be credited for changing the status of women in black Baptist churches across the country, resented the exclusion of women from leadership roles in the church. The response to her speech led to the founding of the Women's Convention, an auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention, (8) which emerged partially in resistance to an already established male hegemony within the church. (9) This sisterhood of more than 1 million Baptist women began to assert itself by setting its own agendas in the national convention and in churches.

Austin's popularity as the new pastor of Ebenezer led to rapid growth of the congregation; and the Great Migration, which brought hundreds of thousands of southern black migrants to Pittsburgh, also influenced the changing roles of black Baptist women. Given the influx of black female migrants into the church and the demands these women made and given the need to satisfy the calls for change being made by long-time female church members, the church was forced to reevaluate the role of its women.

Women-Centered Organizations

In asserting themselves, Ebenezer Baptist Church women created women-centered organizations and auxiliaries to provide support for the women in the church; to allow an opportunity for discourse, leadership, and the training of Christian women; to represent the church in charity interests; and most importantly, to fulfill the need to create a space of their own. Some of the auxiliaries included the Senior Missionary Society, the Junior Missionary Society, and Red Circle Club. These women also founded The Mother's Rest, a home for the aged women of the church who were unable to care for themselves. Under the leadership of Louisa Blakely, the residents of the home were in the constant care of a physician and nurse. In addition, Olive R Jordan, the field secretary and social worker of Ebenezer, supervised the care of these elderly women. Every expense of the home was met with more than $1,000 remaining in the home treasury. The home's pantry was sufficiently packed with foodstuffs, with enough left over to share with the outside community. (10)

Other women-centered organizations established in Ebenezer were the Faithful Mother's Club, a Girl Scout Troop, the Blue Triangle Club, and the Ladies Bible Class. The Faithful Mother's Club, comprised of the church's older women, was organized to "help cast away girls find a mother's love, to shelter homeless children, and to hear special addresses in the interest of the salvation of children." (11) In an effort to train young girls by "example and precept in the virtues of practical living" and create activities for them, Mrs. M. Downer, Austin's secretary, organized a Girl Scout Troop within Ebenezer. (12) Also significant to young girls in the church was the Blue Triangle Club, a youth YWCA program, organized by Mrs. C. C. Payne. This club taught young girls to lead Christian lives, to do common things in open discussions through organized Bible classes, and to take Christian practices into their communities.

Members of the Ladies Bible Class (LBC) sought to create an atmosphere in which they could study the Bible and focus on women's roles in these studies (such as those of Dorcas and Phoebe). This women-centered organization also provided "teaching moments" for both church members and the outside community. For example, on March 31, 1925, the LBC sponsored a moving-picture evening with films about four incidents in the Bible: (1) Christ Confounds His Critics, (2) The Unwelcome Guest, (3) Forgive Us Our Debts, and (4) The Rich Young Ruler. (13) The efforts of these women indicate their commitment to evangelism and their ability to take a leadership role within the church.

During the Great Migration, a watershed in American history, the women of Ebenezer Baptist Church women also asserted themselves outside the church. While some southern black men migrated to Pittsburgh and other urban cities searching for better employment opportunities, higher wages, quality education, decent housing, and less racial oppression, hundreds of black women did so to escape sexual exploitation at the hands of both white and black men. (14) Among the migrants were single black women who arrived in the city without friends or relatives. Concerned about the needs of these women, Ebenezer women stationed themselves at the city's Pennsylvania Train Station to meet and greet incoming migrants. With the help of the church and its members, they were able to provide assistance in terms of room and board until the new arrivals could find jobs and lodging.

In order to find housing for the migrant women, Ebenezer women established an effective network with the Colored YWCA and other black institutions, including the Ella Grayson Home for Working Girls. In addition, one Ebenezer woman served as field representative in Pittsburgh's Morals Court, and her major responsibilities included appearing in court on behalf of women and children and working out reasonable solutions to infractions rather than incarceration. (15) Despite the increasing participation of black women in Ebenezer and other Baptist churches, there was one place they dared not tread--the pulpit.

Black Female Preachers

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women in black Protestant denominations were relegated to positions that posed no real threat to the power structure maintained by preachers, deacons, and other male leaders. For example, women were usually assigned roles as Sunday School teachers, exhorters, secretaries, cooks, and cleaners. Jualyne Dodson suggested that "women's financial contributions to the church gave them power in the decision-making process within the church," but they were expected to operate within gender guidelines that reflected the expectations for women in society-at-large, despite their many contributions to their respective churches. (16)

In A History of Black Baptists, Leroy Fitts noted that black Baptist women were not allowed to preach until the mid-1980s and were not ordained until the 1970s and; even then, in small numbers. (17) Black women who dared become preachers often met with strong opposition from men and even from some women, although the Bible clearly stated that "the sons and daughters could prophesy"; yet only the sons had that privilege in black Baptist churches. While early Mack female preachers were plagued by the issues of race, class, and gender, this would change, and eventually, the issue became solely about gender. In 1990, Wyatt Tee Walker, pastor of Harlem's Canaan Baptist Church, stated:

   Young female ministers are better at preaching than at working
   with the congregation. These women see only the Sunday morning
   hour, the Sunday stage business. This is only a very small piece
   of the ministry. I have also talked to other pastors who were
   emancipated enough to hire women as assistant pastors who have
   not had happy experiences, because of this feminist garbage. (18)

Not all black Baptist ministers shared Walker's assessment of female preachers.

Ebenezer Baptist Church began to ordain black women during the 1970s under the leadership of J. Vann Alfred Winsett, who assumed the pastorate on May 27, 1973. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, and a graduate of Simmons University and Inter-Baptist Theological Seminary in Houston, Texas, Winsett pastored three churches in Kentucky and Wisconsin prior to coming to Ebenezer. During his pastorate at Ebenezer, the church ordained Chrystal Owens, the church's first female minister. Owens later became a chaplain in the military.

Unlike Winsett, previous ministers at Ebenezer, including T. J. King (1926-1949) and James B. Cayce (1950-1971), were grounded in the tradition that only men belonged in the pulpit. (19) Winsett, on the other hand, felt it necessary for the church to ordain women who were "called" in order to "carry out the full responsibility of the ministry." He did not believe that God calls a woman but that God calls a person who happens to be a woman, and that God can use anybody whom he calls. In some Churches, Winsett explained, acceptance for a woman being "called" depends upon the minister. "Should he have a strong sentiment against women, he may be swayed by the congregation to accept their calling. Black women comprise at least ninety percent of all Baptist congregations and if you put them out, what do you have left? Black men are greatly lacking in the church." (20) In short, black women are important in the life of the church and in the ministry. Recognizing this, Winsett has continued to lead Ebenezer Baptist Church to ordain women.

Since the ordination of Owens, fifteen other women have been ordained in this church. Five of these women are currently in training and serving as assistant ministers or administrative assistants, and three have their own churches. Shirley Pierre is pastor of First Baptist Church, Bellaire, Ohio; Barbara Gunn is pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church, North Versailles, Pennsylvania; and Barbara King is pastor of Second Baptist Church, East Liverpool, Ohio. Another woman ordained by Ebenezer, Celester Humphries, served as the church's assistant minister for twelve years before her death August 24, 2001.

Black women have generally experienced a bumpy road to church leadership. Delmare King, currently an administrative assistant at Ebenezer, noted, "It has been a journey and it has its ups and downs." After preaching for six years, King reflected on her personal experience:

   When I first stepped out in my home church to say I had been
   "called to the ministry," people were not receptive. But, when I
   was about to receive my license [to preach] and stepped into the
   pulpit, one of the deacons in the congregation put his head down.
   The fact that black female preachers are oftentimes not accepted
   was a good thing for me, because it helped prepare me for
   everything. Sometimes it's hard, but I thank God for having seen
   something in me to be a spokesperson for him. (21)

Barbara Gunn, who has been preaching for twenty years and pastoring her own church for fifteen years, described her ministry as rewarding. Called to the ministry in 1978, Gunn did not acknowledge the call until 1985, because she was "not raised in a Christian home, did not understand what was going on with her spiritually, and felt obligated to study the Bible more." When asked about any difficulties she has experienced as a black woman Baptist preacher, she responded:

   I can't think of anything trying about being a black female minister
   that I have encountered as a black woman or a woman. I love the
   gospel and love God's people. The fact that there was ever any
   debate or conflict about female ministers has never entered my mind.
   What people say about us means nothing to me and I have never
   defended it and never had to. (22)

Gunn reiterated that the men in both churches she has pastored have been absolutely wonderful to her.

Gunn's ministry at Mount Carmel Baptist Church has met with a great deal of success. She created a program called An Ounce of Prevention (ANOP), designed to develop programming that prevents young people from having problems; Boys to Men, a mentoring program for boys ages 12-18; Crown and Glory, a program for young gifts the same ages; and Amachi, a program for children of incarcerated parents that works in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation. (23) Community outreach activities led by Gunn include food distribution to the needy, provision of space within her church for Narcotics Anonymous, and counseling for dysfunctional families. She currently has eight assistant ministers in training, including five women; and her church congregation has grown from 220 members to 530. Clearly, black female ministers are capable servants and can have successful ministries.

Black women Baptist preachers have encountered a wide variety of attitudes about their presence in the ministry and pulpit. The black church has traditionally been the primary vehicle for black men to exercise both religious and political power. (24) Some women believe that the pulpit is historically one of the few places black men can exert strong, positive leadership, and for that reason, many believe that black women should not seek to fill the pulpit. (25) Moreover, some black men have demonstrated an unwillingness to cede their position to women. (26) In many cases, black women called to preach have not received support or official recognition from black male Baptist ministers who used scriptural interpretation to argue for the subjugation of women and leadership positions in the church. (27)

Even more important is the fact that many women do not want other women in the pulpit. Karen West, a registered nurse and mortician whose family ties to Ebenezer Baptist Church span at least nine decades, expressed mixed feelings about women preachers.

   Now, there are some goods ones, some bad ones, and some not so good
   ones. Some are called, some are whispered to and some think they
   have been called [to the ministry]. When I go into the sanctuary,
   I know they are going to be there and I try not to go and listen
   to them. On the other hand, women, in general, have more empathy and
   sympathy than men. I think female preachers have greater potential
   and feel the need to try and get back to some of the family
   values. (28)

Another respondent, Lana Jemison, a retired school teacher and member of the Baptist church for more than fifty years, contended that having a black male preacher is "tradition."

   They scream a little bit better. Things have changed, but that
   doesn't mean I like it. Some of the [women] are good speakers, but
   as far as going to hear them every Saturday or Sunday, I would not
   want to do that. I prefer hearing a male than a female, because
   females should be missionaries and helpful aids in spreading the
   gospel. (29)

Jeannette Poole, a civic leader and community activist, retiree of Gulf Oil Corporation, owner of Poole Bail Bond Company, and member of Ebenezer for sixty-two years, also has an aversion to female preachers. She noted:

   I don't listen to female preachers and I get up when they start
   walking to the pulpit, because I don't want to disrespect them.
   So, I leave before they start their sermons. When Jesus went to
   get twelve disciples he selected twelve men--no women. And, there
   are also biblical stories to show that women were not to serve in
   leadership positions. (30)

Because these respondents were raised in a patriarchal system and are accustomed to listening to male preachers, they are opposed to women in the pulpit. Moreover, their attitudes may represent a response to an unacceptable change in tradition.

Black Women Strides in the Black Baptist Church

Black women in the black Baptist church have made great strides throughout the denomination's history as ministers and in other roles. According to Winsett, black female ministers have brought new perspectives to the ministry. First, black women preachers have instigated dialogues on issues that men can only study. Second, female preachers understand that they are competing in a male-dominated profession and, in doing so, often become more qualified and professional than black male ministers in order to obtain a church.

Delmare King pointed out that women are becoming more visible as they are pastoring more churches. "It is also considered a breaking point for women in the ministry as God has called them to do his work. They are appearing on television preaching God's word and no longer preaching from the basement." As King and other female preachers of Ebenezer grow in their ministries, they too are seen and heard during the church's weekly television and radio broadcasts.

In addition to serving as senior pastors, many black women are now serving alongside their husbands. Barbara Gunn noted that even greater strides are being made as black women begin to join their husbands in their ministries. Traditional preachers' wives, she said, are not traditional anymore. (31) The wives of some pastors are now themselves ordained ministers and co-pastor with their husbands.

Despite the negative attitudes toward and reluctance to accept black female Baptist preachers, they continue to do God's work in even larger numbers. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Winsett is no longer the only black Baptist minister who ordains women in the ministry. Black female ministers are now serving in the city's larger Baptist churches, including Central, Mount Ararat, Macedonia, and Rodman Street. Black Baptist women in Pittsburgh have kept their hands on the plow--and continue to hold on.

Conclusion

Today, the leadership of Ebenezer Baptist Church has changed dramatically since its founding. With the exception of the deacon board, the majority of leadership positions are held by black women. They serve on the trustee board and the finance committee. They are members of the department of Christian Education. They have served as Sunday School superintendent, church secretary, and church clerk. The majority of the church's auxiliaries, particularly those that are not gender-specific, such as the deacon and men's usher boards, are dominated by women. Black women were also deeply involved in the formation and activities of the Ebenezer Development Corporation and the Ebenezer Baptist Church Credit Union. While they remain the primary fund-raisers in these efforts, their former roles have changed and expanded. The significance of black women in the black Baptist church is reflected in a general statement by Winsett: "We cannot overlook the women. Anybody who does not accept women is living in the horse and buggy days." (32)

(1.) W.E.B. DuBois, Dark Water: Voices from Within the Veil (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe 1920), 189.

(2.) Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, "Baptist Church," in Black Women in United States History: An Historical Encyclopedia, eds. Darlene Clark Hine, Elsa Barkley Brown, Tiffany Patterson, and Rosalyn Teborg-Penn, vol. 1 (New York: Carlson Publishing Company, 1990), 84.

(3.) "Diamond Jubilee, 1875-1950," Ebenezer Baptist Church Souvenir Book Committee, Ebenezer Archives, (Pittsburgh: Pernell Printing Company, 1950), 2.

(4.) Minutes and Annual Reports of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association (Pittsburgh: Record Printing Company, 1900), 13; Ebenezer Baptist Church Record Book, vol. 2, Pittsburgh, 1898, Ebenezer Archives, 286. Some of the women serving as delegates to church conventions included Mary C. Johnson, Bertha Davis, Sarah Bryant, and Laura Myers. In 1901, all sixteen church leadership positions were held by men.

(5.) Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, The Righteous Discontent: The Black Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 1; Mary V. Cook, "Can Women Do This Work?" The Discourse of Racial Uplift, Part 16, Howard University Archives, MSRC, August 1999, 1.

(6.) Higginbotham, The Righteous Discontent, 1.

(7.) Lolita Perkins, "Nannie Burroughs: A Progressive Example for Modern Times," Journal of Women and Social Work 12, (Spring 1997): 229. The fundamental causes of the Great Migration were economic including a severe labor depression in the South (1914-1915); the boll weevils's destruction of the cotton crop (1915-1916); and floods during the summer of 1915, leaving thousands of southern blacks homeless and destitute. Other factors included racial segregation, disfranchisement, and injustice in southern courts. A thriving northern industry created a demand for laborers leading to an exodus of black southerners to the North which they regarded as the "land of promise."

(8.) The National Baptist Convention was founded in 1886 and is currently the largest of all African American organizations. Historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham points out that the Women's Convention was significant for a number of reasons. It led to a national identity for black Baptist women, provided a venue for discussions relevant to their subordination within the church, and allowed women to share ideas and information regarding activities in their individual congregations. An early success of the Women's Convention was the establishment of the first school for black women in 1909, the National Training School for Women located in Washington, D.C.

(9.) Cook, "Can Women Do This Work?" 1.

(10.) Julia Bumry Jones, compiler, "A Testimonial to the Reverend J. C. Austin, Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, 1926," Ebenezer Archives, 22.

(11.) Ibid., 16.

(12.) Ibid., 15.

(13.) The Ebenezer Messenger, 1925, 2. A 25-cent admission fee was charged for the event with profits used in support of this and future church-related activities; and to help sustain the Ladies Bible Class. At the end of the moving-picture show, a discussion was led by members of the Ladies Bible Class with comments and questions from the audience.

(14.) For more information on the Great Migration see, Joe William Trotter's The Great Migration in Historical Perspective (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996); Peter Gottlieb's Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks Migration to Pittsbugh, 1916-1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987).

(15.) Already established in Pittsburgh was the Morals Court which sought to correct the morals of the city's inhabitants and not just black people. With the Great Migration, however, an increasing number of blacks added to the burden of this court as many of them became involved in vice and crime. Overcrowded jails and juvenile detention facilities prompted the court to seek help from churches and social service agencies for alternative punishment.

(16.) Chanta M. Haywood, Prophesying Daughters: Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823-1913 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003), 14.

(17.) A survey of female ministers by the National Council of Churches showed that as of 1986, there were 20,736 women, representing almost 8 percent of the nation's clergy. This was double the figure for 1977. However, the survey did not provide a racial breakdown. While there were no figures for the National Baptist Convention, the Progressive National Association reported only one female preacher during this same period.

(18.) Ari L. Goldman, "Black Women's Bumpy Path to Church Leadership," The New York Times, July 29, 1990, Section 1, Part 1, Column 2, 1.

(19.) During the pastorates of King and Cayce, the board of trustees remained all-male while Ebenezer's women continued in their traditional church roles. They did, however, assume leadership positions in the church's numerous auxiliaries: Shirley White, chair of the Mission Department Board; Alyce Mathis, president of the James E. East Mission Society; Ann C. Waters, president of the Cheerio Club; Cora Foster, president of the Goodwill Prayer Band; Edyth Jamison, general superintendent of the Church School General Officers; and Mattie Hodge, general director, The Baptist Training Union.

(20.) J. Vann Alfred Winsett, telephone interview by author, June 1, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(21.) Delmare King, telephone interview by author, June 1, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(22.) Barbara Gunn, telephone interview by author, June 1, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(23.) Amachi is a Nigerian word meaning "people of faith mentoring children of promise." Co-founded by former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode in 2000, Amachi has 119 chapters in 101 cities and involves an estimated 10,000 children. In Pittsburgh, where the program is two years old, there are 13 churches, 130 mentors, and 200 children participating in Amachi. Mentors in the program must pass criminal and abuse clearances and be recommended by the clergy. For more information see Ervin Dyer, "Program aids children of incarcerated parents," The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thursday, July 7, 2005, 1, B-4.

(24.) Goldman, "Black Women's Bumpy Path to Church Leadership," 1.

(25.) Vashti McKenzie, Not without Struggle: Leadership Development for African American Women in the Ministry (Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1996), 42. Although McKenzie is a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, much of what she writes also applies to black Baptist women.

(26.) Goldman, "Black Women's Bumpy Path to Church Leadership," 1.

(27.) Juan Williams and Quinton Dixie, This Far By Faith: Stories from the American Religious Experience (New York: William Morrow, 2003), 83.

(28.) Karen West, telephone interview by author, June 1, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(29.) Lana J. Jemison, telephone interview by author, May 30, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(30.) Jeannette R. Poole, telephone interview by author, May 30, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(31.) Joy Bennett McKinnon described the traditional preacher's wife as "the beautiful, ever-smiling woman in the background, the always willing and unpaid church worker, guiding the choir, playing the organ, deftly arbitrating church feuds while raising her own family, and facilitating the women's ministry of the church." In addition, they are unpaid workers in the church. For more information see "The New Preacher's Spouses," Ebony Magazine, August 2001, 48-57.

(32.) Winsett, telephone interview, June 1, 2005.

Pamela A. Smoot is assistant professor of Black American Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois.