James Gordon McPherson collection

This is a small collection of materials generated by the evangelist healer and spiritual leader Rev. J. Gordon McPherson, known and self-proclaimed as the "Black Billy Sunday." Included in the collection is a letter to members from a New Orleans lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) which McPherson signed as a committee secretary for the Lodge about a trip to Cleveland for the 1926 Grand Lodge Session; the letter authors propose that they should turn out in large number to bolster support for hosting the 1927 Grand Lodge Session in New Orleans. The collection also includes a 1933 letter from Dr. W. L. Williams of Edwardsville, Illinois, to McPherson, in which Williams pleads for help due to financial crisis which he describes as a "big frame up" by the state attorney. Also included is a newspaper clipping for a "155th birthday of Old Glory" which mentions Rev. J. Gordon McPherson leading the separate ceremony for African Americans in Audubon Park in New Orleans; an advertisement card for a lecture by McPherson on "vital Christianity" to benefit Welcome Baptist Church in Wiggins, Mississippi, in 1926; and a "freewill offering" card for Rev. McPherson filled out by Eliza Maze of Champaign, Illinois.