Category: Campaign

$10,000 Raised In Ten Minutes for Negro YMCA – Atlanta 1917-1918

“Atlanta, Jan. 1.—Ten thousand dollars raised within ten minutes by white citizens of Atlanta yesterday assures the negroes of this city success in completing their Y.M.C.A. building. The white people are pledged to raise another ten thousand if necessary. A fifty thousand dollar fund was needed to obtain the gift of $25,000 from Julius Rosenwald. C.W. McClure made a donation with the statement that the friendly relations between the whites and the negroes were better than ever since Billy Sunday preached to both.”
Jan 1 paper

In the waning days of 1917, as Atlanta turned the page to a new year, a remarkable act of interracial philanthropy unfolded that would leave a lasting mark on the city’s history. Newspapers reported that ten thousand dollars had been raised in just ten minutes by white citizens of Atlanta to help fund a new YMCA building for the city’s Black community. The drive was part of a larger campaign to secure a matching gift of twenty-five thousand dollars from Julius Rosenwald, the Sears, Roebuck & Co. magnate whose generosity was transforming African American education and social life across the South. Local businessman C.W. McClure, who helped spearhead the effort, remarked that the relations between whites and Blacks in Atlanta had improved markedly since evangelist Billy Sunday had preached to both communities during his campaign there.

The fruits of that campaign materialized in the Butler Street YMCA—known in its day as the “Negro Y.” Built between 1918 and 1920, the new structure rose in the heart of the Sweet Auburn district, the beating center of Black enterprise and culture in Atlanta. The project followed Rosenwald’s signature pattern: a challenge grant that required local citizens—both white and Black—to raise the balance. The local enthusiasm kindled by Sunday’s revival evidently carried over into civic generosity, helping to meet the $50,000 goal needed to unlock Rosenwald’s contribution.

The Butler Street YMCA quickly became one of the South’s most important centers of African American life. Designed by the firm Hentz, Reid & Adler and built under the direction of Black contractor Alexander D. Hamilton, the facility was impressive for its time—three stories of brick and stone housing a swimming pool, gymnasium, dormitories, meeting halls, and classrooms. It provided a wholesome environment for young men seeking moral and social uplift in a city that offered them few such spaces.

More than a recreational facility, the Butler Street Y grew into a cornerstone of civic and spiritual leadership. Over the decades it came to be known as the “Black City Hall” of Atlanta, hosting meetings that shaped the course of civil rights and community advancement. Figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson, and Vernon Jordan would later pass through its doors. The Y stood as a living emblem of what cooperative goodwill and faith-inspired philanthropy could achieve during an era when segregation still divided the city.

The 1918 campaign that launched the Butler Street YMCA was more than a fundraising victory. It was a moment when revival energy turned outward—when the social conscience stirred by Billy Sunday’s preaching translated into practical generosity. In helping to fund the YMCA, the people of Atlanta built not only a structure but also a bridge between communities, one that carried forward the spirit of reform, service, and reconciliation that Sunday’s message had kindled. The Butler Street Y remained for nearly a century a monument to that brief but luminous cooperation—a place where faith met action and where the legacy of revival took tangible form in brick, mortar, and hope.

Butler YMCA, image from their Facebook page

Billy Sunday’s prayer in the House of Representatives, Jan 10, 1918

Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), Saturday 23 March 1918, page 7

The U.S. House of Representatives, 1918. Colorized by author.

BILLY SUNDAY’S PRAYER.

CHEERED IN PARLIAMENT.

Billy Sunday prayed in the House of Representatives at Washington on Thursday, January 10, and was applauded at the close of his appeal. Mr. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House, extended the invitation to Mr. Sunday to take the place of the regular House chaplain. Mr. Sunday, in his prayer, verbally assailed the Germans, and invoked the aid of Divine Providence to help the President, the Secretary of War, and Congress to defeat Prussianism.

“We thank Thee that we are Americans,” prayed the evangelist, ‘”and live beneath the protecting folds of the Stars and Stripes. We thank Thee, that Thou canst look over the battlements of glory on our land and see that there is not one stain on any star or stripe. We thank Thee for our happy homes. We thank Thee for our wives and little ones. We thank Thee for the fruitful trees and bountiful harvests. We thank Thee that as a nation we have never gone to bed  hungry, or scraped the bottom of our flour barrel, and we pray for Thy continued mercy and blessing.

Most Infamous Nation in History.

“We pray that Thou wilt forgive our transgressions and blot out our iniquities. Thou knowest, O Lord, that we are in a life-and-death struggle with one of the most vile, infamous, greedy, avaricious, bloodthirsty, sensual, and vicious nations that ever disgraced the pages of history.

‘”Thou knowest that Germany from the eyes of mankind has wrung enough tears to make another sea; that she has drawn blood to redden every wave upon that sea; that she has drawn enough shrieks and groans from the breasts of men, women, and children to make another mountain.

‘”We pray Thee that Thou wilt bare Thy mighty arm and strike that great pack ot hungry, wolfish Huns, whose fingers drip with blood and gore. We pray Thee that the stars in their courses and the winds and waves may fight against them.

“We pray Thee that Thou wilt bless our beloved President and give him strength of mind and body and courage of heart for his arduous duties in these sorrow laden, staggering days. We pray Thee to bless the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, and bless, we pray Thee the Navy Strategy Board. Bless we pray Thee, the generals at the head of our army and the boys across the sea. somewhere in France, and bless those protecting our transports, loaded to the water’s edge with men and provisions.

Prays for Allied Victory- ‘ “Bless our boys at home who are in ‘ cantonments. Bless, we pray Thee, this Senate and House, and give them wisdom and strength, for they seem to have come into the kingdom for such a time as this.

“‘And, Lord, may every man, woman, and child from Maine to California, from Minnesota to Louisiana, stand up to the last ditch and be glad and willing to suffer and endure until final victory sha’ll come. Bless our Alliée, and may victory be ours. And in Thy own time, and in Thy own way, we pray Thee that Thou wilt release the white-winged dove of peace until it shall dispel the storm and clouds that hang lowering over this sin-cursed, blood-soaked, and sorrowing world, and when it is all over we will uncover our heads and lift our faces to the heavens ‘ and ring with a new meaning

“‘My country, “tis of thee, sweet laud of Liberty.

” Of thee I sing.’

“‘And the praise shall come to Thee forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen.”

The House broke into instant applause at the ending words of the prayer. Many members crowded around the evangelist, and shook hands with him, and an in-formal reception was held in the lobby.

The Billy Sunday archives at Grace College in Warsaw, Indiana have the following related artifact in their archives. He seems to have spoken at Union Station Plaza, starting January 6, 1918.

Champ Clark (James Beauchamp Clark, 1850–1921) was a prominent American politician and leading Democrat in the early 20th century. By 1918, he was near the end of his long and distinguished career in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he had served in almost continuously since 1893.

Transcription of above letter:

WALLACE BASSFORD, SECRETARY

THE SPEAKER’S ROOMS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

WASHINGTON, D.C.

January 8, 1916.

Rev. William A. Sunday,

My dear Friend:

Don’t you forget that you, your wife, and your son and his wife and Mr. Rodehever are to take luncheon with me at the Capitol at 12:30 on next Thursday. Chaplain Couden asked me last week one day, if I would have any objection to your opening the proceedings of the House with prayer. I told him, of course not. I would be delighted.

I asked him about the day, and he said he had written you a letter which he had not sent but would send it, asking you to pray at the opening ceremony, and telling you to set your own day.

Now, I have this suggestion to make to you: The House meets at twelve o’clock sharp and we begin our luncheon at twelve thirty. You come up to my office about ten minutes before twelve on Thursday, bringing your folks with you. They can go up in the gallery and you can open the proceedings with prayer and in a few minutes we can go to lunch, so that you can perform both functions at once.

I am not advised as to whether you have any automobile. If you have not, and will let me know at once, I will send my own, which is big enough to hold five or six people and have it bring you up to the Capitol and then take you and yours wherever you desire to go afterwards.

So please send me an answer to all these queries by the bearer, as to whether you can come up Thursday in time to open with prayer.

I enjoyed your Sunday sermon very much. I hope your meeting will be a great success.

I will have a pleasant, small company to lunch with us.

Your friend,

Champ Clark