Alvin, Texas, a small, rural city just south of Houston, Texas is rich in Pentecostal history. Alvin is widely recognized as the area frequented by African American holiness preacher and architect of the Azusa Street Revival, William J. Seymour, during the earliest days of his ministry.
In fact, locals who have lived in the area for decades and who are familiar with Seymour’s ministry point to a local landmark near The R.O.C.K., a train depot where Seymour was often observed listening to the teachings of Charles Parham, an early American Pentecostal pioneer.
Parham was a preacher and evangelist known for his “Apostolic Faith” movement and for praying for his students at Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which both he and his students received. After relocating to the Houston area and beginning a Bible school 1905, Parham began to teach a doctrine centered on holiness, faith healing, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues.
It was this theology that local folklore, passed down through generations of Alvin residents, records that Seymour learned directly from Parham. However, because Seymour was a Black man and not permitted to intermingle with whites due to segregation, he was forced to listen to Parham’s teachings seated outside of an open window of the building.
Nonetheless, Seymour learned Parham’s Pentecostal doctrine and adopted his beliefs, particularly that of how speaking in tongues was evidence that a person had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
In 1906, after becoming an astute teacher of these teachings himself, Seymour moved from Alvin, Texas to Los Angeles, California. It was here that he preached the message of Pentecostalism, and the Azusa Street Revival was born. During the revival, large crowds of people were filled with the Spirit, experienced unusual miracles, and worshiped in interracial worship services, a practice in stark contradiction to the acceptable norm of the time.
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