William J. Seymour

William Joseph Seymour (May 2, 1870 – September 28, 1922) was an American Holiness Pentecostal preacher.

Seymour was the second of eight children born in an African-American family to emancipated slaves. He was a student of the early Pentecostal minister Charles Parham, and he adopted Parham's belief that speaking in tongues was the sign of receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In 1906, Seymour moved to Los Angeles, California, where he preached the Pentecostal message and sparked the Azusa Street Revival. The revival drew large crowds of believers as well as media coverage that focused on controversial religious practices as well as the racially integrated congregation, a violation of racial norms at the time. Seymour's writings for The Apostolic Faith newspaper launched him into prominence within the young Pentecostal movement. Seymour broke with Parham in 1906 over theological differences.

As the revival's influence extended beyond Los Angeles through evangelism and missionary work, Seymour was in the process of developing the revival into a larger organization called the Apostolic Faith Movement. This process was ultimately defeated by power struggles with other ministers, such as Florence Crawford and William Howard Durham, which damaged the unity of the early Pentecostal movement and led to a decrease in Seymour's influence. By 1914, the revival was past its peak, but Seymour continued to pastor the Apostolic Faith Mission until his death. The revival acted as a catalyst for the spread of Pentecostal practices throughout the world.