The Unmasking of Mr. Divine:
Is He God?, 1936
Father Divine, in full Father Major Jealous Divine, original name George Baker (1880?—1965), prominent African-American religious leader of the 1930s. The Depression-era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult, but it still exists and is now generally hailed as an important precursor of the Civil Rights Movement…
In 1933 Father Divine and his followers left Sayville for Harlem, where he became one of the most flamboyant leaders of the Depression era. There he opened the first of his Heavens, the residential hotels where his teachings were practiced and where his followers could obtain food, shelter, and job opportunities, as well as spiritual and physical healing.
The movement[’s] [racially diverse] membership numbered in the tens of thousands at its height during the Great Depression…Father Divine’s teachings were codified in 1936 in the “Righteous Government Platform,” which called for an end to segregation, lynching, and capital punishment.
During the Depression residents of the Heavens paid the minimal fee of 15 cents for meals and a dollar per week for sleeping quarters, a practice that allowed them to maintain their sense of dignity. In the opinion of many, Father Divine affirmed, amid the poverty of the Depression, the abundance of God with the free lavish banquets he held daily.