“Through his labors even a number of the most prominent men in authority in the nation have been definitely reached by the truth,” Dr. James H. Howard wrote of L.C. Sheafe in a letter of 15 February 1903 to Elder A.G. Daniells. This correspondence came to my attention recently, well after publication of Lewis C. Sheafe: Apostle to Black America. It sheds further light on the highpoint of Sheafe’s career – the remarkable impact of his ministry in Washington, D.C. in 1902-1903 and the remarkable opportunity it opened for the Seventh-day Adventist movement.
(Newspaper headlines from the front page of the Colored American newspaper, September 13, 1902 pictured left are indicative of Sheafe’s impact).
In the letter Dr. Howard, a leading light at the racially-integrated First Seventh-day Adventist church, appeals to Daniells, president of the General Conference, to renew financial support for Sheafe’s evangelism. Sharp opposition to the First Church’s insistence on full racial equality and fellowship on the part of white church leaders advocating racially separate churches as an expedient in a segregated society had placed that support in jeopardy. Howard pleads with Daniells to see though the race-transcending ministry conducted by Sheafe in conjunction with the First Church was controversial to some, it also offered the church a breakthrough so extraordinary in its scope and countercultural character that it could only be attributed to the providence of God.
The letter also sheds valuable light on perceptions of Sheafe’s character at this point in his career. Dr. Howard, highly-regarded by opponents for his integrity and sincerity, notes that the evangelist’s phenomenal success does not seem to have “gone to his head.”
My thanks to Tim Poirier, vice-director of the Ellen G. White Estate, Silver Spring, Maryland, for notifying me about this and other letters after they recently came back into the possession of the White Estate.
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