Popular Philadelphia Methodist minister and one of the greats in the African-American gospel music tradition.
Tindley grew up in extreme poverty and oppression. After his mother Hester Miller Tindley died, his father has forced to rent out Tindley's labor:
It therefore became my lot to be "hired out," wherever father could place me. The people with whom I lived were not all good. Some of them were very cruel to me. I was not permitted to have a book or go to church. I used to find bits of newspaper on the roadside and put them in my bosom (for I had no pockets), in order to study the ABC's from them. During the day I would gather pine knots, and when the people were asleep at night I would light these pine knots, and, lying flat on my stomache to prevent being seen by any one who might still be about, would, with fire-coals, mark all the words I could make out on these bits of newspaper. I continued in this way, and without any teacher, until I could read the Bible without stopping to spell the words.
- Tindley, Book of Sermons, 1932
Tindley's power as a preacher was such that he regularly packed the 3,200 seat, custom built, Tindley Temple United Methodist Church to overflowing.
Part of Tindley's genius was his ability to compose brilliant hymns that merged seemlessly into his sermons:
Tindley's most famous sermon was his Christmas tree sermon. Every Christmas for years he would preach the same sermon. People would reportedly come to the Sunday morning service at 8:00 A.M. to get seats, then they would stay all the day to hear Tindley preach about the Christmas tree. His niece, Stella Tindley, and his granddaughter -in- law, Geraldine Tindley, has strong memories of this great sermon: "Well, on Christmas he preached about 'Heaven's Christmas Tree,' which had these packages: love, charity, salvation.... He would take each package from this tree, which was the 'Heaven's Christmas Tree,' and he preached on love this year, hope and charity. The next year, he would preach on a different package, salvation, forgiveness, and that's how the sermon would go. Each year it would be 'Heaven's Christmas Tree' but just different packages"
- Bernice Johnson Reagon, We'll Understand It better By and By, Smithsonian Institution Press 1992
He is most famous today for writing I'll Overcome Some Day, the hymn that was the basis for the civil rights movement's anthem We Shall Overcome.
We'll Understand It Better by and by : Pioneering African American Gospel Composers In-depth essays, photos and sheet music (!!!) on some of the greats: Charles Albert Tindley, Lucie E. Campbell, Thomas A. Dorsey, William Herbert Brewster, Roberta Martin, amd Kenneth Morris. (This was my source for Heaven's Christmas Tree.)
Ev'Ry Time I Feel the Spirit : 101 Best-Loved Psalms, Gospel Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the
African - American Church
by Gwendolin Sims Warren
Hardcover - 256 pages 1 Ed edition (January 1998)
A wonderful, wonderful book. Includes several of Tindley's hymns, placing them within the greater musical and historical context.
Maryland's Distinguished African-Americans: Charles Albert Tindley
Includes a copy of the original sheet music for I Shall Overcome.
Worcester County Tourism Page Bio of Tindley
Hymn Texts