Reverend E. W. Perry's Home

The Reverend Ezell W. Perry was the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church which stood three blocks west at 319 East Second. Ralph Ellison was a friend and playmate of the Perry children. Ralph's fascination with birds is attributed to his encounters with the fighting roosters in the Perry's backyard which met the Ellison's backyard on North Byers.

In the more genteel neighborhoods of Ralph Ellison's early childhood in the prosperous east-side Black community, Tabernacle Baptist Church loomed large. The aura of its vivacious preacher, Ezelle W. Perry, loomed even larger. Although the Ellison family was active in Avery Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church rather than Perry's rival congregation, the pre-school Ralph, yet without siblings, looked for playmates in the adjacent backyards of his home and Reverend Perry's. Among the Perry children was a girl, Darlene, Ralph's age, who joined him riding a tricycle, roaming the alleys, and chasing the fighting cocks along East Second Street and Bryant Avenue.