Clarence H. Cobbs

Clarence Henry Cobbs (February 29, 1908 – June 28, 1979) was an African-American spiritualist clergyman and broadcaster, the leader of the First Church of Deliverance in Chicago.

Clarence H. Cobbs
Born
Clarence Henry Cobbs

(1908-02-29)February 29, 1908
Memphis, Tennessee
DiedJune 28, 1979(1979-06-28) (aged 71)
Chicago, Illinois
Resting placeOak Woods Cemetery
OccupationClergyman, broadcaster
OrganizationFirst Church of Deliverance

Early life

Clarence H. Cobbs was born in Memphis, Tennessee on February 29, 1908. He attended Kortrecht High School, where his teachers included hymnwriter Lucie Campbell.[1] He moved to Chicago in 1916, becoming a member of the Pilgrim Baptist Church.[2] In the late 1920s, he met and was influenced by spiritualist medium "Mother" Della Hedgepath.[1]

The First Church of Deliverance
The First Church of Deliverance

After Hedgepath's death, Cobbs founded his own congregation, the First Church of Deliverance. It initially met at his mother's residence, and moved to a storefront at 4155 South State Street in May 1929.[1][2][3] It moved again in 1930, to 4633 South State Street, and to a brick building at 4315 South Wabash Avenue in 1933.[1]

Nicknamed "Preacher", Cobbs became known for his fashionable clothes, informal manner, and stirring performances with the church's 200-member choir.[4] They appeared before large crowds in Comiskey Park, and began broadcasting services on radio station WSBC in 1935. The hour-long "Midnight Broadcast" pioneered a format which was followed by many subsequent religious programs.[1][3]

In 1939, the church moved into a large new building designed by Walter T. Bailey at its Wabash Avenue site,[5] and that same year, composer Kenneth Morris prevailed on Cobbs to install a Hammond organ, giving the choir's music a distinctive sound. Morris recalled,

I wanted nothing else. It sold itself. Reverend Clarence Cobbs was only too happy to get it because it did what he wanted [since] he wanted to use it for gospel purposes. It was the most unusual thing you ever heard. People came from all over just to hear me play that organ.[6]

By the early 1940s, the congregation had over 9,000 members.[2] It affiliated with the Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ (MSCC), and after the death of Bishop William F. Taylor in 1945, Cobbs became the head of one of two successor segments, the Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ, Incorporated. This would grow to include 130 churches, including ones in Ghana, Jamaica, and Liberia.[7]

In 1953, the Church of Deliverance became the first black church in the country to televise its services, which were carried on WLS-TV for 12 weeks.[3]

Personal life

Though he never publicly discussed his orientation, it was an open secret among churchgoers and Bronzeville residents that Cobbs was homosexual. The First Church of Deliverance became known as a welcoming place for gay black Chicagoans, and Cobbs made no effort to hide annual vacations he took with his male secretary R. Edward Bolden.[8] When articles in The Chicago Defender indicated that he was "facing the possibility of questioning by state's attorney's police concerning widespread rumors of a scandalous nature", Cobbs stated that he was a "full man", and filed a defamation suit against the paper.[2]

Cobbs was a member of the executive committee of the NAACP's Chicago chapter.[9] During racial tensions around fair housing protests, he invited civil rights leader Archibald Carey to speak on his radio program to counsel against violence and promote acceptance.[10]

Clarence H. Cobbs died at his home in Chicago on June 28, 1979.[11] He is interred in Oak Woods Cemetery.

Legacy

The First Church of Deliverance published music for gospel composers such as Dave Carl Weston.[12] Doris Akers credited one of Cobbs' radio sermons for inspiring her 1951 song "My Expectation", and songwriters Thurston G. Frazier and Cora Martin also dedicated works to him.[13] Cobbs supported singer Billy Williams in the years before the latter's death in 1972, and paid for his funeral services and burial.[14]

Cobbs' hour-long radio broadcasts pioneered a format which was followed by many subsequent religious programs.[1][3]

The First Church of Deliverance building was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 5, 1994.[5]

References
  1. Marovich, Robert M. (March 15, 2015). "Turn Your Radio On". A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. University of Illinois Press. pp. 64–69. ISBN 9780252097089. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  2. Cabello, Tristan (March 13, 2012). "Queer Bronzeville, Part II: Being Black and Queer in 1940s Bronzeville: Race, Class and Queer Identities in Black Chicago, 1940–1950". Windy City Times. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  3. Bey, Lee (February 15, 2010). "Art Moderne beauty: First Church of Deliverance". WBEZ. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  4. Drake, St. Clair; Cayton, Horace R. (November 10, 2015). "The World of the Lower Class". Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. University of Chicago Press. pp. 645–646. ISBN 9780226253350. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  5. "First Church of Deliverance". Chicago Landmarks. Government of Chicago. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  6. Marovich, Robert M. (March 15, 2015). "Across This Land and Country". A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. University of Illinois Press. pp. 127–128. ISBN 9780252097089. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  7. Pinn, Anthony B. (2009). "Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ, Inc.". African American Religious Cultures. ABC-CLIO. pp. 218–221. ISBN 9781576074701. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  8. Best, Wallace D. (October 24, 2013). Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915–1952. Princeton University Press. p. 188. ISBN 9781400849345. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  9. "What the Branches Are Doing". The Crisis. Vol. 65 no. 2. February 1958. pp. 114–115. ISSN 0011-1422. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  10. Dickerson, Dennis C. (December 1, 2010). African American Preachers and Politics: The Careys of Chicago. University Press of Mississippi. p. 100. ISBN 9781604734287. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  11. "Rev. Cobbs dies; founded Church of Deliverance". Chicago Tribune. June 30, 1979. p. 65. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Djedje, Jacqueline Cogdell (1993). "Los Angeles Composers of African American Gospel Music: The First Generations". American Music. University of Illinois Press. 11 (4): 427. doi:10.2307/3052539. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 3052539.
  13. Djedje, Jacqueline Cogdell (1993). "Los Angeles Composers of African American Gospel Music: The First Generations". American Music. University of Illinois Press. 11 (4): 441, 442, 444. doi:10.2307/3052539. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 3052539.
  14. "Billy Williams Sings the Blues in His Death". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. November 2, 1972. p. 58. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
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