Picturing the Funeral of a Monumentally Important African-American Woman

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/20/2024

Photograph, 20" x 10", small chip to upper left corner, short closed tear in left edge, minor edge wear, light soiling and creasing. A substantial photograph picturing the funeral procession of Bishop Ida Bell Robinson, an important, trailblazing African- American woman who formed the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America. The present photograph shows Robinson's funeral procession paused in the street in Philadelphia. Half a dozen men and women lead a hearse and a line of cars, interspersed with a handful of police officers, one of whom leads the procession on a motorcycle. Hundreds of African-American men, women, and children line both sides of the street. The majority of the mourners look straight into the camera lens, obviously prompted by the camera operator. The name of the undertaker is printed below the caption title, as "John C. McKain, Undertaker, 2019 Jefferson St., Phila., Pa." Robinson practiced her evangelism on the streets before being ordained as a minister in the United Holy Church of America in 1919. In 1924, she founded, served as first bishop, and was president of the Mount Sinai Holy Church - positions she would hold for the rest of her life, which ended about a week before the present photograph was taken. Her church was one of the most important ministries devoted to supporting women preachers; six of the original nine members of the church leadership were women. Her main reason for founding the church lay in the belief that God had instructed her to create a church that would "loose the women" and allow them full clergy rights. She built a real juggernaut of a ministry. At the time she died (sadly too young at age 55), Bishop Robinson's organization numbered over eighty churches, served by 125 women ministers (out of 160 total), a school, missions in Cuba and Guyana, and a farm in New Jersey.

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