Born: ca. 1880, Rockville, VA

Education: Self-educated

Died: September 10, 1965, Philadelphia, PA

Born to ex-slaves, Baker grew up in poverty in Virginia but outmigrated and became a prominent minister. He attended the 1906 Azuma Street Revival in Los Angeles, birthplace of modern Pentecostalism. Azuma's racial inclusion inspired him to become Major J. Divine. By 1914 he was forging his Pentecostal and interracial Peace Mission Movement in New York City.

Divine recruited the poor and working classes. He preached of New Thought, or positive thinking, and Heavens, or homes offering affordable meals and lodging. Membership increased and the Mission moved to Long Island, where police arrested Divine in 1931 for causing a public nuisance. When the judge who imprisoned him died suddenly, followers began calling him “Father Divine.”

Relocating to Harlem, he expanded the movement. During the Depression it bought empty hotels and remade them into Mission Heavens. The Mission required new members to pay off all debt, cancel life insurance, and buy everything in cash. They had to abstain from alcoholic drink and sexual intercourse. Divine also preached racial equality and integration. He married a white Canadian (Mother Divine) in 1946. In the postwar era, no urban black religious group was better known than Divine's. In 1982 its assets included four hotels and eleven Missions.