James K. Humphrey and the Sabbath-Day Adventists

257 Pages·2006·0.78 MB·English

by  R. Clifford Jones

James K. Humphrey
and the
Sabbath-Day Adventists

James K. Humphrey
and the
Sabbath-Day Adventists
R. Clifford Jones
y
university press of mississippi
jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of
American University Presses.
Copyright © 2006 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First edition 2006
(cid:1)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, R. Clifford.
James K. Humphrey and the Sabbath-Day Adventists / R. Clifford
Jones.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57806-891-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-57806-891-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Humphrey, James K.
(James Kemuel), 1877–1952. 2. Seventh-day Adventists—Clergy—
Biography. 3. African Americans—New York (State)—New York—
Religion. 4. Harlem (New York, N.Y.)—Church history. I. Title.
BX6193.H88J66 2006
286.7’092—dc22
2006002268
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
Introduction 3
Chapter 1. The Utopia Park Affair 14
Chapter 2. Assessing the Utopia Park Affair 36
Chapter 3. The Tenor of the Times 49
Chapter 4. The Black Experience in Adventism, 1840–1930 82
Chapter 5. The Church History of the Sabbath-Day Adventists 113
Chapter 6. The Sabbath-Day Adventist Church after Humphrey 161
Chapter 7. Summary and Conclusions 179
Appendix A. Fundamental Beliefs of Sabbath-Day Adventists 184
Appendix B. Constitution and By-Laws of the New York Sabbath-Day
Adventist Church 187
Notes 197
Bibliography 232
Index 243
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James K. Humphrey
and the
Sabbath-Day Adventists

Introduction
“I have determined, my friends, that like the apostle Paul, I shall allow nothing
to separate me from the love of God—nothing! . . . In 1905, a brother came
to my house and urged me to cut loose from this denomination. . . . I refused
then to do it, and I refuse now to do it.”1 Uttering these words with convic-
tion and clarity, James Kemuel Humphrey, pastor of the First Harlem Seventh-
day Adventist Church in New York City, clutched the pulpit and did all he
could to prevent tears from flowing down his face. The occasion was the For-
tieth Session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and Hum-
phrey was delivering the evening sermon on May 23, 1922. Preaching about
suffering, Humphrey let his listeners know that he would never disassociate
himself from the Seventh-day Adventist church in spite of calls by other Black
pastors for him to do just that. Yet, less than ten years later, James Kemuel
Humphrey would leave the Seventh-day Adventist church and establish his
own religious organization, the United Sabbath-Day Adventists. What brought
about the turnaround in Humphrey’s thinking? How could a pastor so bent
on staying the course with one religious group change his opinion in a matter
of years?
The history of people of African descent in the New World is one of struggle
for freedom, empowerment, and self-determination. Their humanity initially
challenged by European traders who viewed them as heathenistic and a notch
or two above animals in terms of their physiognomy, theirs was an unending
quest to prove their humanity and to claim their equality. In the course of
their sojourn in Western society, people of African descent have been sub-
jected to “scientific” experiments that sought to ascertain their physical, mor-
al, and intellectual constitution.2 What African Americans3 found particularly
disturbing was the treatment they received at the hands of White4 Christians,
who, ostensibly, had introduced them to Christianity.5 Refusing to accept the
discriminatory practices of Whites, some of these Blacks left predominantly
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