The Subversive Pulpit

When the United Holy Church of America moved to curtail women’s ordination in 1924, Ida Bell Robinson broke away to found a church where women would not only preach but lead. The Subversive Pulpit argues that Robinson used her agency and autonomy amid the upheavals of the Great Migration to build a religious enterprise defined by radical gender egalitarianism and socioeconomic uplift for Black women and their communities.

Centering Robinson as founder and first bishop of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Dara Coleby Delgado shows how her religious program extended far beyond the question of whether women should preach. Drawing on unpublished denominational records, census data, the Black Press, and other archival sources, Delgado interprets Robinson’s efforts to “loose the women” as a practical, economically consequential project. Robinson transformed the pulpit into a subversive site—one that generated social capital, fostered positive religio-racial identity, and created jobs and institutional opportunities aligned with Progressive Era urban culture, industrialism, and commercial expansion.

By recovering Robinson as both a religious influencer and business-minded institution builder, Delgado reframes her legacy as a model of holiness, spiritual empowerment, and prophetic social consciousness. The book makes a significant contribution to scholarship on American Pentecostalism, African American religion, and women’s religious leadership, and will be essential reading for scholars and students of American religious history, Black church studies, gender studies, and women’s history.

“The Subversive Pulpit introduces readers to the remarkable story of Bishop Ida Bell Robinson: a groundbreaking religious innovator, media maker, entrepreneur, and overlooked architect of the Pentecostal movement. With sharp insight and narrative verve, Delgado traces Robinson’s call to ‘loose the women,’ revealing a bold leader who championed a radical vision of gender equity that opened new social and economic possibilities for Black women. The result is a compelling account of race, gender, religion, industrialization, and urban life - essential reading for anyone interested in religion in modern America.”—Leah Payne, Professor of American Religious History at Portland Seminary and author of God Gave Rock & Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music

“In The Subversive Pulpit, Dara Coleby Delgado offers a powerful new history of Black Pentecostalism through the remarkable life of Bishop Ida Bell Robinson, founder of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America. Recovering a largely forgotten chapter of the nation’s religious past, Delgado shows how Bell, who was part of the Great Migration of Black Southerners to the urban North, built a groundbreaking church in Philadelphia in 1924 that centered Black women as religious leaders and visionaries. Through its school, radio ministry, and national newsletter, it expanded rapidly across the country. Blending painstaking research with compelling prose, Delgado reveals the key role of Black women Pentecostals in shaping modern American religion, making this book essential reading for scholars and general readers alike.”—John Giggie, University of Alabama

Dara Coleby Delgado is Assistant Professor of American Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

African American Studies

Biography & Memoir

Gender Studies

History

           History of Religion

           U.S.

Religious Studies & Religion

           History of Religion

           Sociology of Religion

Sociology

           Sociology of Religion