Indelible Grace Hymnbook

Born: Ju­ly 7, 1851, Ber­lin, Mar­y­land.

Died: Ju­ly 26, 1933, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Buried: Eden Cem­e­te­ry, Col­ling­dale, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Tindley is known as one of the found­ing fa­thers of Amer­i­can Gos­pel mu­sic. The son of slaves, he taught him­self to read and write at age 17. He was a driv­en young man, work­ing as a jan­i­tor while at­tend­ing night school, and earn­ing his di­vin­i­ty de­gree through a cor­re­spond­ence course. In 1902, he be­came pas­tor of the Cal­va­ry Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Church in Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­vania, the church where he had ear­li­er been the jan­i­tor. At the time of Tind­ley’s death, his church had 12,500 mem­bers. The Tind­ley Tem­ple Unit­ed Meth­od­ist Church in Phil­a­del­phia was named af­ter him. Tind­ley’s I’ll Over­come Some Day was the ba­sis for the Amer­i­can ci­vil rights an­them We Shall Over­come, pop­u­lar­ized in the 1960’s.

Source:The Cyber Hymnal