The One-Eyed Preacher Who Saw the Future

In April 1906, a one-eyed son of former slaves named William Seymour stood in a crumbling former stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles and watched something the world said was impossible. Black and white worshippers knelt side by side. Mexican immigrants lifted their hands next to Chinese laborers. wealthy matrons wept beside domestic workers. In an America where Jim Crow laws dictated who could sit where, this broken-down building at 312 Azusa Street became, for a shining moment, a glimpse of heaven on earth.…