Rosa Horn
American preacher and church leader (1880–1976)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rosa Artimus Horn (December 2, 1880 – May 11, 1976), also known as Mother Horn and the Pray for me Priestess, was an African-American Pentecostal church leader, preacher and radio host. She founded the "Pentecostal Faith Church for All Nations" in Harlem, New York City.
Rosa Horn | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 2, 1880 Sumter, South Carolina, United States |
| Died | May 11, 1976 (aged 95) |
| Occupations | Pentecostal church leader, preacher and radio host |
| Years active | 1913-1969 |
| Employer | WHN radio |
| Children | 2 |
Biography
Horn was born on December 2, 1880,[1] in Sumter, South Carolina.[2][3] Her grandparents had been enslaved, and her grandmother, Ellen Hamilton, had purchased her freedom and the freedom of her husband before Emancipation.[2]
Horn was one of ten children[4] and her mother Sarah Baker insisted that she attend a private school in Sumter.[5] Horn worked as a seamstress in Augusta, Georgia, after leaving education.[1][4]
Horn married musician William Artimus and they had two children together.[1][2] Her husband discovered that he had terminal tuberculosis and Horn later claimed in Negro Digest magazine that he had then tried to kill her, but "the Lord wrought a miracle and lifted me bodily from one chair to another just as my love-crazed husband fired a bullet at my back."[1] After her husband died, Horn had a spiritual vision and moved to Evanston, Illinois, with her daughter Jessie.[1]
Horn had been a member of the Methodist Church,[4] but was ordained by the American faith healer, Evangelist and revivalist Maria Woodworth Etter in Indiana in 1913.[2] She preached in Evanston in the early 1920s.[3]
After remarrying in 1926, Horn settled in Brooklyn, New York to expand her ministry.[5][6] Frustrated by the refusal of some local Protestant denominations to ordain women, in 1930 Horn founded the "Pentecostal Faith Church for All Nations" in Harlem, New York City.[3][7][8] The Church was also known as "Mount Calvary"[6] and Horn was known in the church as Mother Horn.[7] Frank Rasky of the Negro Digest visited Horn's church and reported that she preached that she would "punch the devil in the eye."[9] She had established churches in five cities along the East Coast by 1934.[1][4]
As her ministry gained popularity, Horn was invited to broadcast the program You Pray for Me Church of the Air nationally on WHN radio,[10] from 1933.[5] WHN launched an advertising campaign which promoted a rivalry between her and the Church of Christ (Holiness) preacher Lightfoot Solomon Michaux.[4] On air, Horn crusaded against "dens of iniquity," such as cabarets, dance halls and pool rooms.[1] She became known as the "Pray for me Priestess" by her radio listeners.[5]
Over the next three decades, thousands of members joined Horn's church,[5] with poor black migrants from the American South attracted to her prayer ministry.[1] Members included a teenage James Baldwin.[5] His stage play The Amen Corner explores the role of a church in an African-American family and his character Pastor Margaret was influenced by Horn's life and ministry.[4][5][11]
In 1960, plainclothes police officers raided the barber shop located in Horn's Church loft.[12] She ceased preaching in 1969.[1]
Horn moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and died there on May 11, 1976, aged 95.[3][4] She was buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in New York.