Bishop Charles M. "Sweet Daddy" Grace
1881(?) - 1960

One of the most charismatic and colorful of the "Black Messiahs" of early twentieth-century America was Charles M. "Sweet Daddy" Grace, a native of the Capeverdean island of Brava. Founding the United House of Prayer for All People in the 1920s, Bishop Grace would become the leader of a huge nationwide congregation and a man of great wealth. Today his church enjoys broad support within the African American community for its long tradition of feeding and clothing the poorest people in the community.

The Man and his Church

• "Daddy Grace" and the United House of Prayer for All People. - (NEA)
  
• Speak to my Heart - Communities of Faith and Contemporary African American Life.
  

  The United House of Prayer's Charlotte Mission on Seventh Street, northwest Washington, D.C., was recently renovated to incorporate several church architectural and heritage styles.

  • Interview with Apostle H. Whitner
• Daddy Grace and the United House of Prayer for All People - Erin Kate Sparrow
  
• Daddy Grace - Graham Weathers
         - The Sweet Blessing Angel
         - "Bishop Grace"" Sculpture
  
• "Sweet Daddy" Grace revisited - Standard-Times-10/21/96
  
• Daddy Grace -- An Annotated Bibliography
  
• from The Charlotte Story
  • Bishop Charles Manuel "Sweet Daddy" Grace
  • Bishop Grace visits Charlotte - September 1959
    
  • Charlotte Church
    
  • Car advertising an appearance by Bishop C. M. Grace
    
• Building on Faith
• Bishop Grace's Gravesite
  
• The Church and the People of Cape Verde - Raymond Almeida
  

United House of Prayer Churches on the Web

• Savannah, Georgia
• Photos of New and Renovated House of Prayer Churches (Jaco Construction Services, Inc.)
  

The Music

Psalms 150 1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

 

Psalms 150 Who Started Shout? - "Daddy Grace" and the United House of Prayer for All People Eddie Babb - Shout Band Gospel Musician (Extended Biography) Remarks By First Lady Hillary Clinton At Nea Heritage Awards Ceremony Further remarks by the First Lady Kings of Harmony Spirits Soar on Music's Wing - (Standard-Times) All Together Now The Angels Shout Band - Lowell Folk Festival '99 - July 23-25 Negro Blues and Hollers A Voice From the South - William Styron The Music District (film) Soul Survivor -Solomon Burke Dr. Solomon Burke Andrae Murchison (Coastal Jazz Association -- Noteworthy Profiles) Saints Paradise (Smithsonian Folkways Records)

"Last week, the Heritage Awards honored 11 uniquely American folk artists. Before I arrived in the East Room for the ceremony, I knew something out of the ordinary was going on. The doors in the White House were shaking. The chandeliers were quaking. And all because of the full-throttle, Gospel trombone music of one of the honorees -- Ed Babb and his band, the McCullough Sons of Thunder from the United House of Prayer in Harlem." First Lady Hillary Clinton, Sept. 30, 1997     "The instrumental 'voices' are arranged in three- and four-part harmonies with the lead horns playing on top of the run horns. The music builds slowly through songs to a sustained crescendo known as "thundering," with lead players improvising and blowing with great intensity."

Black Religion and Black Messiahs

• American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
  • Negro Cults in Harlem
  • Temple of Grace - (Dorothy West)

  • Folklore Research of the WPA
• God, Harlem U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story by Jill Watts
• Free at Last? The Gospel in the African-American Experience
  
• African American Literature: A Contrast Between North and South
• New African American Megachurches Worshiping Anew

Other

• Cape Verde Home Page
• Subway Preacher (art)
• James VanDerZee - from The Beauty Others Missed
  
• NewStandard: 10/9/96
  
• American Memory (search on "Daddy Grace")
  

Do you have a photograph or memory to share about Daddy Grace? Please contact Richard Leary at (508) 994-2903 or e-mail. Don't let this part of history and culture disappear. If you have an historic photo or other material relating to Daddy Grace or his ministry/church, please send it to me. I'll treat it with the utmost care, and return it immediately upon scanning or transcribing it. - RL

Richard Leary
609 Union St.
New Bedford, MA 02740

This page maintained by Richard Leary
609 Union St., New Bedford, MA 02740 USA
(508) 994-2903 (H)

rleary@newbedford.com

 
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