Pastor Deitrick Haddon and members of CARP Youth Choir as part of the Easter Sunday Covid 19 Vaccination Program at JACCC Plaza

Azusa Street Revival came alive on Easter Sunday at the JACCC Isamu Noguchi Plaza. A multicultural congregation of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and Whites celebrated Pastor William Seymour, son of slaves, who founded a multicultural congregation at 312 Azusa Street on April 9, 1906. The historic location within the borders of Little Tokyo witnessed one of the greatest spiritual revivals in history and became the Cradle of the Worldwide Pentecostal Movement which has touched over 800 million worshippers today.

Pastor Patrick Deitrick Haddon of the Hill City Worship Camp and Storyteller is a well-known gospel singer, songwriter, music producer and actor. He invited CARP, a Choir of Japanese students led by Pastor Mark Tegan, to perform at the event. CARP is composed of students from local colleges who presented “Principles Worth Living” in a progressive and contemporary gospel style.

Inspired by Pastor Seymour’s mission, Mickey Stevenson is writing and producing a play, “Azusa Street Revival the Musical”, which will feature Pastor Haddon as Pastor William Seymour and debut at the Aratani Theatre in the Fall. The plan is to tour the play bringing the inspirational story of the Azusa Street Revival to audiences around the country and the world.

Mickey Stevenson is one of the great figures in the history of Motown records. As their A&R (Artists and Repertoire) executive, he helped discover Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Martha Reeves and many others who went on to bring the distinctive Motown sound to audiences worldwide.

The Azusa Street Revival which began on April 9, 1906 also has special meaning for the 3,000+ Japanese Americans who fled San Francisco after the earthquake on April 18, 1906 and moved to Los Angeles. Many settled next to a segregated African American community and formed what is currently Little Tokyo.

Before the earthquake, San Francisco was embroiled with racial antagonism, fed by inflammatory articles in the press against the Japanese immigrants. In 1905, the San Francisco Education Board proposed that the Japanese American students should be separated from white student and segregated into their own schools like the Chinese students. The proposal was opposed by the Japanese government because it treated the Japanese students like they were second class citizens. The opposition resulted in the Gentleman’s Agreement. But in May of 1905, a Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was organized and on October 22, 1906, the San Francisco school board arranged for all Asian children to be placed in a segregated school.

The Azusa Street Revival is important because it stands as a beacon against racial discrimination and injustice that was so prevalent at the time. The Pentecostal Movement was founded in Los Angeles and it was one of the first and few American Multicultural Religious Movement with which continued and grew to have world impact today. In this regard, William Seymour stands shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and other great leaders of African descent in the 20th century.

The site of the Azusa Street Mission involves another notable person of African American ancestry – Ms. Biddy Mason. Biddy Mason, a former slave, who became a wealthy businesswoman in Los Angeles, founded the First AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church at 312 Azusa Street in Little Tokyo. She sold the property to William Seymour that became the Azusa Street Mission.

Knowing neither its existence nor its historical significance, Isamu Noguchi, a world-renowned sculptor, convinced Mayor Bradley, the first African American Mayor of Los Angeles, to build a plaza on the site of the Azusa Street Mission. A theatre had been planned for the site. In 1980, Tom Bradley was able to convince the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Board of Directors to create a plaza on the Azusa Street Mission site and locate the planned theater at its present location.

Mayor Bradley with Sculptor Isamu Noguchi discuss the creation of the plaza.

The Azusa Street Mission Foundation, Inc., a non-profit foundation (www.wordpress-390232-1227690.cloudwaysapps.com) , is working towards establishing Azusa Street as an Historical Cultural Place that will become the “Azusa Street Spirit Walk and Multicultural Spiritual Door to the World in the City of Angels”. It will embody the power of and faith of the Azusa Street Revival and Pastor William Seymour who created a multicultural congregation during our country’s Jim Crow era.

Just as Pastor Seymour openly welcomed and brought together Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Whites to demonstrate the beauty and diversity of God’s wonderful creation, Easter Sunday at the JACCC Isamu Noguchi Plaza experienced a taste of that unity which is desperately needed today.

To RSVP email: info@azusarevivalthemusical.com

For more information about
Azusa Revival | THE MUSICAL
please visit: azusarevivalthemusical.com

April 7th-9th

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Azusa Street

Aerial view of the JACCC Noguchi Plaza and
Azusa Street upper end of photo

The Azusa Street SpiritWalk Project will become one of the greatest spiritual tourists destinations for Los Angeles, and Little Tokyo will be known as the “Spiritual Door to the World” for the City of the Angels. As the city grew from a little pueblo in the desert, churches were established around the civic center area. The Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Jewish, and Pentecostals were all part of the spiritual birth of this emerging young city and today, it is part of a megapolis with over 10 million people living and working in the “Jewel of the Pacific.”

312 Azusa Street Mission and Pastor Seymour
and members of the Pentecostal Church
(Image courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

Of historical significance is the 312 Azusa Street Mission address. It is the Birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement, founded by William Seymour, a humble, uneducated son of former slaves, on April 14, 1906. Today, the Movement embraces over 600 million followers throughout the world and is one of the fastest growing religious organizations in the history of mankind, according to “The Life Millennium: The 100 Most Important Events & People of the Past 1,000 Years.” On April 25-29, 2006, over 100,000 members will come to Los Angeles to celebrate the Azusa Street Centennial, “The Spiritual Experience of a Lifetime.”

Today, Azusa Street is used as a service alley for delivery and trash removal trucks. The 312 Azusa Street address is a blank gray concrete wall. Except for a modest sign, very few worshippers are able to find the street where the Azusa Street Mission Revival occurred. The Little Tokyo Azusa Street Memorial Committee is proposing to develop an Azusa Street SpiritWalk Promenade to commemorate the importance of the street to Little Tokyo and Los Angeles. Under the leadership of Bill Watanabe, Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, the committee has been meeting for over 10 years to create an appropriate memorial for this historical site as well as help Little Tokyo capitalize on the potential tourists trade. The Azusa Street Centennial 2006 is crucial for solidifying the Azusa Street as “The Mecca for the Pentecostal Movement.”

Request for $25,000 Feasibility Study

The $25,000 grant from the Tom Bradley Foundation will be used to hire a development consultant to prepare a specific plan for the redevelopment of Azusa Street. Additional funds are being raised from the Pentecostal Church, the Community Redevelopment Agency, Block 8 development, and an in-kind contribution from the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

Mayor Bradley’s Involvement in the Azusa Street project and the Isamu Noguchi Plaza Development

Isamu Noguchi explaining to Mayor Tom Bradley about the development of the plaza (Image courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

In 1980, Isamu Noguchi proposed to Mayor Bradley the development of a plaza rather than a theatre on the historical 312 Azusa Street Mission site. The knowledge or the significance of the site as the birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement was never known, mentioned, nor discussed in any of the deliberations. At the urging of Isamu Noguchi to create a plaza, Bradley provided the leadership in convincing the Japanese American community leaders to consider Isamu Noguchi’s proposal. Thanks to Mayor Bradley’s commitment of a million dollars, Isamu Noguchi’s vision was realized. Thanks to Noguchi, 312 Azusa Street can have an appropriate monument in order to acknowledge the Birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement.

Site plan of the JACCC Campus and the Azusa Street location 

Photo of the Noguchi Sculptures “To the Issei” and the Japan America Theatre

By K. Connie Kang,
LA Times Staff Writer
Feb 6, 2006

A group of religious and civic leaders is seeking public support for a long-stalled memorial in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo honoring the African American preacher who a century ago launched a multiracial mission there that grew into the worldwide Pentecostal movement.

The project has been bogged down for nearly 10 years in part because the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center has refused to allow a mural on a wall it owns on the Azusa Street site where the Rev. William J. Seymour’s church once stood. In addition, some local clergy are concerned about Pentecostal churches’ conservative stances on religious and social issues.

Hoping to capitalize on the current Black History Month, proponents said the “Azusa Street SpiritWalk” would be a spiritual destination for Pentecostals from around the world and help boost Little Tokyo’s sagging economy.

The project, estimated to cost $250,000, would consist of an outdoor promenade and a mural depicting the histories of the church and of the diverse neighborhood where immigrants and nonwhites lived in the early 20th century. The area is now a trash-littered alley near 2nd and San Pedro streets facing the backs of businesses.

Though few people outside Pentecostalism know of him, Seymour was a son of slaves whose around-the-clock religious revivals drew thousands to the Azusa Street Mission and made him a revered figure.

“He stands shoulder to shoulder with such leaders of African descent as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X,” said Les Hamasaki, an urban planner who serves on the Azusa Street Memorial Committee and the Tom Bradley Legacy Foundation board of directors, a group founded by the late mayor and his supporters.

The Bradley foundation, which is affiliated with UCLA, has committed $25,000 to fund a feasibility study, and the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has promised $25,000 of in-kind service, according to Hamasaki, who was on the city planning and airport commissions in the 1990s.

Last week, the city Human Relations Commission and City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes Little Tokyo, gave their support.

“It’s a fascinating project,” Perry said. “It’s fascinating because it will broaden people’s understanding about the historical context of Little Tokyo and the migration southward of Central Avenue and of African Americans. We have so many common historical roots in this city.” She said the story of a black preacher in an ethnically diverse neighborhood who had many followers who weren’t black is a story that needs to be told.

“William J. Seymour had broken the barrier on race relations in Los Angeles before Martin Luther King ever lived,” said Fred Berry, an elder at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ and a coordinator for the centennial celebration of the Pentecostal Movement, scheduled for April 25-29 in Los Angeles. “He was a pioneer, a trendsetter who had the first multicultural experiment.”

Pentecostals believe the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues, witnessing signs and performing miracles are available to them through baptism, as they were to the 1st century apostles. They are thought to be the single largest group of Protestants, with an estimated 500 million members around the world.

Supporters of the project held a conference Friday at Los Angeles City Hall. Among the speakers was Cecil M. Robeck Jr., a professor of church history at Fuller Theological Seminary and an authority on Pentecostalism, whose new book is titled “The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement.”

His research led to old newspaper accounts and contacts with 500 people who remembered the Azusa Street Mission, which lasted in Little Tokyo until 1931, about nine years after Seymour’s death.

Robeck said he learned that the mission “turned everything upside down in Los Angeles and all the major churches were trying to figure out how to relate to it. Within six months, it was running 1,500 people, sending missionaries all over the world. That’s a huge story that most people don’t know.”

A Times story on April 18, 1906, was headlined: “Weird Babel of Tongues. New Sect of Fanatics Is Breaking Loose. Wild Scene Last Night on Azusa Street. Gurgle of Wordless Talks by a Sister.”

The article went on to state: “Breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand, the newest religious sect has started in Los Angeles. Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on Azusa Street, near San Pedro Street, and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal.” Robeck said there were pre-Azusa Street Pentecostals in Texas and Kansas, but their numbers were small. So the Little Tokyo site is considered the birthplace of the global movement.

Today, the only commemorations at the site are a modest plaque marking the mission’s founding, another plaque and a grapefruit tree honoring Seymour and his wife, Jennie, and a Los Angeles city sign on the street that says, “Site of Azusa Street Revival 1906-1931.”

The Japanese American Cultural and Community Center at the site has a spacious plaza, theater and office building. Victor Wong, director of administration at the cultural and community center, said his organization would not change its position that the mural would hamper operations because that wall contains power panels and hardware required for plaza events.

In the past, the center has considered adding a housing component, among other changes, to its campus, but no decisions have been made on that or other renovations.

However, the center does support “the recognition of the location as a historical site,” and will fully cooperate with Pentecostal centennial celebrations that will entail setting up tents on the plaza, Wong said.

Pentecostals have expressed interest in buying some of the property if it becomes available, but Wong said it is not for sale.

The Rev. Billy Wilson, executive director of the Azusa Street Centennial Celebration, said Pentecostal churches around the world want to see the property preserved.

Bill Watanabe, chairman of the Azusa Street Memorial Committee, said some people in the neighborhood oppose the memorial project because they erroneously think it would make Little Tokyo into “the Pentecostal capital.”

Watanabe, who is executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, stressed that the promenade would recognize other faith traditions and said it should be welcomed.

In another wrinkle, Pentecostals’ positions on some social issues have made some other religious leaders uneasy.

“The issue for us is whether or not the Azusa Street Mission organization represents values that we believe Little Tokyo represents,” said the Rev. Mark Nakagawa, senior pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church and a member of a Little Tokyo-area interfaith group.

“Those values are inclusiveness, tolerance and openness with respect to ethnicity, gender orientation and the diversity of culture,” Nakagawa said.

He said he plans to ask Robeck about such topics at a March 6 meeting.

Robeck has said that Pentecostals would not use the site for proselytizing and that he thought all the issues could be resolved.

By K. Connie Kang, Times Staff Writer

Carrying banners and making music, about 3,000 exuberant Christians on Saturday kicked off a weeklong centennial celebration of the birthplace of modern Pentecostalism in Little Tokyo with a “Holy Spirit Procession” through downtown Los Angeles.Thousands of Christians worldwide are coming to Los Angeles this week to mark the 100th anniversary of what is called the Azusa Street Revival, considered the cradle of the global Pentecostal movement, the fastest growing branch of Christianity, with 500 million adherents.

Saturday’s march began at a modest house on Bonnie Brae Street where William J. Seymour, an African American preacher, once held prayer meetings, and ended on Little Tokyo’s Azusa Street, where he established a multiracial mission that church historians say grew into the modern Pentecostal movement.”It’s so incredible to see all the nations coming together, not just to celebrate but to ask God for another outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” said the Rev. Jonathan Ngai, pastor of Transformations Community.

By Mark Kendall, MARK KENDALL is a freelance writer based in Ontario.
May 2, 2007. Los Angeles Times

NEVER-LOOK-BACK Los Angeles managed to brick over one of the nation’s key religious historical sites without even realizing it. And somehow that turned out to be a good thing — maybe even a miracle.

It was in downtown just over a century ago that the hands-raising, tongues-speaking form of Christian faith now known as Pentecostalism ignited into a global movement. From a bare-bones church on Azusa Street, a black preacher named William J. Seymour led multiracial crowds in an ecstatic revival that began in April 1906. Today, this movement stressing the need for believers to receive the “baptism in the Spirit” booms far beyond the U.S., in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia.

But when Pentecostal pilgrims find their way to Azusa Street these days, they discover no soaring memorial or grand cathedral. The movement’s holiest site outside of the Holy Land is today just another downtown L.A. plaza, this one in what is now Little Tokyo. The street was long ago reduced to an alley.

For more than a decade, a group of Pentecostal and community leaders have worked to memorialize the site. Bill Watanabe, executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, knew nothing of Pentecostalism but became intrigued after being repeatedly asked by visitors for directions to Azusa Street — which he knew only as an unremarkable alley. After learning the story behind it, he helped launch the Azusa Street Memorial Committee in the 1990s.

But formal recognition of the site’s importance remains understated at best. The location where the church — torn down in 1931 — stood is covered over by a brick plaza created by renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi in the early 1980s as part of the larger Japanese American Cultural and Community Center complex.

The memorial committee’s efforts have yielded only a city sign marking the alleyway as the “Cradle of the Worldwide Pentecostal Movement” and two plaques at the actual church site. And those plaques are decidedly hard to spot so as not to alter the appearance of the plaza — the entire space is considered a work of art.

Advocates of a grander memorial stepped up their campaign last year during the buildup to the Azusa Street Centennial Celebration, which drew thousands of Pentecostals to Los Angeles in April 2006. They touted a proposal for a “SpiritWalk” depicting the famous revival and the neighborhood’s multicultural history through a mural and promenade along the alleyway. But the JACCC has objected to the use of the back side of its wall separating the plaza from the alleyway for a mural. The center is planning renovations to the property and the wall may not stay, according to Executive Director Chris Aihara. Last week, memorial advocates were touting a simpler plan for an obelisk to be located on city property deeper into the alleyway, next to where the church once stood.

But whether or not a fitting memorial materializes, I can’t help but wonder if something more significant than markers or murals has been missed. In the decades after the revival, this prime piece of land in downtown Los Angeles could easily have been overtaken by another sterile steel-and-glass high rise, a concrete-bunker parking structure or a dumpy little hot dog stand.

The site, then a parking lot, narrowly escaped being overtaken by a theater when the redevelopment plans for Little Tokyo unfolded in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The theater was to be built as part of a larger JACCC complex, and nobody involved seems to have understood the place’s history. The Times’ stories at the time made no mention of it. “We did not know the significance of the location,” said Les Hamasaki, a former urban planner for the city who has become part of the Azusa Street memorial effort.

But when Noguchi saw the plans for the complex, he balked, insisting that the project needed a larger plaza. He literally picked up the model of the theater and moved it, according to Hamasaki. The artist got his way, and the sacred site was inadvertently spared, “just by happenstance,” Hamasaki said.

Or was it?

Today, the stark plaza where the church once stood offers an open space where Pentecostals are still able gather to worship and seek something more lasting than a memorial. There’s the miracle — one of the harder-to-spot kind that I’m certain happens all the time in the City of Angels.