This article examines two figures from the early twentieth century
beginnings of the Hebrew Israelite movement. Malinda Morris
was a central, though forgotten, figure in William Crowdy’s
Church of God and Saints of Christ but her creation of an
independent Church upon Crowdy’s death has not so far been
discussed. The strongest body of evidence regarding this Church
is a booklet published by one of their Bishops, A.W. Cook, in
Harlem, 1925. This booklet offers biographical, legal,
constitutional, and theological information about Cook and his
branch of Morris’ Church. Situated at a crucial juncture, at the
beginning of the second wave of Hebrew Israelite preachers and
congregations, Cook’s booklet offers some important insights into
the development of foundational narratives of the movement, as
well as allows us to reconstruct some of the life of this forlorn
thinker and minister, and his leader Malinda Morris.