M ason, C . H . (1866–1961)

Abstract

Abstract Charles Harrison Mason is the founder of North America's largest African American Pentecostal denomination; the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). He has been described as one of the “greatest African American organizers” of the 20th century. A son of emancipated slaves Jeremiah and Eliza Mason, Charles Mason was born September 8, 1866 in Bartlett, Tennessee, near Shelby County. Mason was raised in the African American Baptist church. His early religious preparation and experiences came from his mother, “mother Eliza”; she was a product of the slaves' “underground church” and the first spiritual person to impact his life. His mother's prayers, her spiritual power, and strong dedication to God allowed young Mason to witness the inner workings of black folk religion. In 1878, after a devastating yellow fever epidemic hit Shelby County, Mason's family moved to Plumerville, Arkansas where Mason and his brothers worked as sharecroppers with their father. In 1880 Mason fell sick with tuberculosis and later claimed that God miraculously healed him. Afterward Mason said he dedicated his life to the service of God. At age 14 Mason was baptized, ordained, and licensed to preach in the black Baptist church by his half brother Rev. Israel Nelson, a Baptist preacher pastoring Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist church near Plumerville, Arkansas. In the 1890s Mason and his colleague Charles Price Jones established a holiness association of churches. Mason and Jones' association later became the Church of God in Christ.