MARY MAGDALENA L. TATE

Mary Magdalena L. Tate was an African-American minister and administrator. After she was ordained as a minister, Tate began advocating the cleanliness of the word of God. In 1907, she preached her first sermon in Brooklyn, Illinois. In Alabama, over 900 persons were converted through her preaching. Tate herself was baptized in 1908 and accepted as Chief Apostle Elder, president, and first chief overseer of the formally organized church in Greenville, Alabama. Additionally, she was ordained as a Bishopric and presided over the First General Assembly of the Church of God from June 25 to July 5, 1908. In 1914, Mother Tate organized the first Church of God in Florida in Ocala. By 1916, under her leadership, charters were issued to Church of God members in more than twenty states and the District of Columbia. Magdalena climaxed her career as a world evangelist of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She died in 1930.