Father Divine (1876–1965) was the founder of the International Peace Mission Movement, a new religious movement that sought to bring about racial harmony as well as alleviate the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged in inner-city America during the middle decades of the 20th century. At its height in the 1930s and 1940s, the Peace Mission movement claimed upward of 2 million supporters and 150 centers operating throughout the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Australia. Since Father Divine's death in 1965, the work of the Peace Mission Movement has been guided by Mother Divine (Edna Rose “Sweet Angel” Ritchings), whose vision has transformed the movement, for the most part, into a well-respected, albeit declining, charitable organization.

[Page 391]Little of certainty is known of the early ...