ABSTRACT
A black-led cult which attracted a great deal of attention in the 1930s was Father Divine's Peace Mission. Its leader, George Baker, later Father Divine (1878?—1965), had various cultic pastorates in the South and Long Island before arriving in Harlem in 1931 where he expanded his influence amongst both blacks and whites during the Depression. His cult drew upon different strands of religious belief. Proclaiming himself the incarnation of God, he brought heaven down to earth by providing feasts free, or at minimum cost, to adherents. He saw sin and sickness as the product of a lack of true faith. But the Peace Mission was also worldly enough actively to oppose war and racial discrimination.
