Avery Chapel A.M.E. Church

Ralph Ellison's mother, Ida Ellison, was an ardent member of Avery Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest African American congregation in Oklahoma City. After the death of her husband Lewis Ellison, Ida and her two sons lived in the Avery parsonage in exchange for custodial duties. Ralph attended the church-sponsored Kindergarten in this building.

Avery Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church was the spiritual, social, and even political center of the lives of Ida Ellison and her two young boys after the premature death of her husband Lewis. Though keeping up the rigorous theology of heaven and hell, the A.M.E. church preached the importance of this world and not just the next. Ida's progressivism obviously found the politics of the church in line with her own. It was, however, the Avery Chapel emphasis on music that most influenced her son Ralph. With classical music often included under the direction of the university-trained choir director, Dr. William Haywood, Ellison would have his first exposure to sophisticated music. In addition, Avery Chapel hosted musicals and vocal recitals to further inspire Ellison's love of music. He would later write, "In our A.M.E. church the choir director was one of the local physicians who disdained the spirituals. He preferred the more formal religious music. The church had an organ, and orchestra, and a fair-sized choir which performed the music of Handel."

Ellison, Ralph. Living with Music. New York City, New York. The Modern Library, 2001.

Jackson, Lawrence. Ralph Ellison: The Emergence of Genius. New York City, New York. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.