Jeremiah Crawford

The Reverend Jeremiah Crawford (August 1887, Loachpaoka, Lee County, Alabama - 1957) was the son of James Crawford (1853-1940) and Gennie Paradise Crawford (1860-1940). He was the seventh child in a family of twelve. In 1906, he married the former Dovetta Henderson (1888-1964) in Auburn, Alabama. They had fourteen children. In 1926, some Christians who settled in the western corner of Auburn on what is now known as Foster Street, desiring a closer fellowship and wanting to continue their Christian faith started a Bible class. They met every Sunday afternoon. Reverend J. C. Crawford preached to this small group of people and a church was organized as the Bell Missionary Baptist Church. Reverend Crawford became pastor of what subsequently became a rapidly growing church until they moved into an old vacant house. The first church was built in 1930. Reverend Crawford served as pastor until 1932. Eighty-two years later, Bell Missionary Baptist Church is an active African-American historic congregation in Auburn Alabama. Reverend Crawford established two other churches in Montgomery, Alabama until 1940.

In the late Great Migration of the early 20th century (what became commonly known as the Black Migration), Crawford moved his family north to New York City in 1940. On October 23,1946, he organized and established the Union Grove Baptist Church with a membership of 13: Dovetta Crawford, Robert Lee Crawford, Jerry Crawford, Fletcher Crawford, Carrie Walker, Louise Carpenter, Daisy Cobb, Dovetta Wilson, Jeff Crawford, Harrison Crawford, C.L. Crawford, Ruby Nelson, Jonathan Crawford, Ameila Swinton and Dorothy Morris. Services were held at 221 East 98th Street in Manhattan, New York. The church membership grew and in 1948 moved to 876 Home Street in the Bronx, New York. Reverend Jeremiah Crawford served as founding pastor to many Southern African-American families moving North during the Black Migration. The church assisted members and the surrounding communities in adjusting to the urban enviornment of the South Bronx and Harlem. With his declining health, he appointed his son, Reverend Fletcher Crawford as the Supply/Assistant Pastor for the church. This arrangement lasted until his death in 1957 with his son, Reverend Fletcher Crawford elevated as Pastor of Union Grove Baptist Church.

References

*"Big Town, Big Heart: Celebrating New Yorkers Who Make a Difference", Daily News, Wednesday, May 10, 2006
*C. Eric Linclon and Lawerence Mamyiya, "The Black Church in the African American Experience", Duke University Press, Durham, 1990
*The Great Migration and Changes in the Northern Black Family, 1940 to 1990 Stewart E. Tolnay "Social Forces", Vol. 75, No. 4 (Jun., 1997), pp. 1213-1238
*www.uniongrove-ny.org