3 Reels of Tape
Restrictions: Portions of tapes T2 and T3 are closed to researchers until 2075.
Biography
Full name: Beverly Pannell Yates
Birth date: 1931 in Sturgis, Michigan
Family:Conversion: At about the age of sixteen
Education:Other significant information: Frequent speaker and teacher at Christian conferences and workshops in the Chicago area. Author of magazine articles and Heart Health for Black Women: A Natural Approach to Healing and Preventing Heart Disease (2000); contributed to Women's Ministry Handbook, ed. Carol Porter (1992)
Scope and Content
Beverly Yates was interviewed by Paul Ericksen on May 16, 1994. The events described in the interview cover the time period ca. 1941-1994.
T1 ( 65 minutes). Family background; memories of Sturgis, Michigan, and family life; the Pannell house as a place where African Americans could stay; early Christian influences; brother Bill's involvement with the Missionary Church; importance of Henry and Leona Bunch and Mildred Branford to the family; mother's illness and death from tuberculous and its effect on the family; Bill Pannell's influence on his brothers and sisters, family background on mother's side; advantages of growing up in a small town; relationship with her brother Bill; memories of her grandparents; racial attitudes in Sturgis during her childhood; activities as a child; new tensions during teenage years; code of conduct expected by the Sturgis Gospel Hall (Plymouth Brethren) congregation; Beverly's becomes the "mother" of the family after her mother's death; decision to be a nurse; move to Chicago to live with her father; the conversion of her father; the importance of teaching little children the gospel; a sermon by B. M. Nottage; her internal struggles before her conversion and after; seeking God's will for herself; meeting her future husband Leroy Yates in 1948; his formal Catholicism; her efforts to lead him to Christ; his conversion while he was in the Army; her difficult decision not to marry him while he was unsaved; influence of her friends in the Nurses Christian Fellowship; marriage in December 1951; his spiritual growth while serving in Korea; more on her decision not to marry an unsaved man; B. M. Nottage's influence on her and the congregation he started at 64th and Drexel in Chicago (Southside Gospel Assembly)
T2 ( 68 minutes). Importance of small groups in her spiritual life at this time; comments on her career as a nurse; Leroy's return in 1954 and his dual training in microbiology during the day and at Moody Bible Institute during the evening; the transfer of church buildings from white to black congregations in Chicago at this time; the Yates' and others move to help start the Westlawn Gospel Chapel in 1956; description of the steps in building a congregation in the area; Beverly's loneliness during the early days of starting the church; development of a women's fellowship at the church and Yvonne Rollerson Abatso; the development of the Chicagoland Christian Women's Conference (CCWC) ca. 1961; Sister Francis Bietthuis and the radio program Woman to Woman; purpose of the conference and the development of women leaders; Beverly's leadership and attendance at Moody for further Bible training; development of other women's conferences; the influence of B. M. Nottage; the nondenominational aspects of the CCWC; attitude in the conference toward the ordination of women; positive attitudes of Chicago pastors toward the conference; topics covered during meetings; the importance of salvation; the need for black Christian women to have a response to violence in their communities; contacts with similar white Christian women's fellowships; the place of evangelism at the conferences; reasons for the difficulty in getting a men's conference started; description of her leadership in the conference during the civil rights struggle in the late 1960s; the culture shock within the group over Afrocentric clothes and hairstyles; concentration on building up the black Christian community as opposed to building bridges to white Evangelical groups; Beverly's leadership style; establishing a home for unwed mothers and other plans; Ruth Bentley of the National Black Evangelical Association; Leroy's attitude toward her involvement in the women's conference; attitude of the Brethren Assemblies toward the woman's conference; Melvin Banks
T3 ( 45 minutes). Influence of her ministry on her parenting and family and visa versa; Cedine Bible Mission in Tennessee; difficulties their children went through; founding the Circle Y Ranch in Bangor, Michigan, for black children with Jim Humphry in 1964; Leroy's going full-time into ministry in 1978; Beverly's work as head of the Circle Y kitchen; reflections on camping ministry as means of helping children come to know the Lord; support of black churches for the ranch; Leroy's appointment as pastor of the Westlawn Gospel Chapel; differences between black and white Brethren Assemblies congregations; controversies within the Brethren Assemblies over having full-time clergy; Beverly's deepening understanding of the strengths of the black church and its desire for the Bible; the sin of the separation of the black and white churches; the strong family bond in the black community; her attitude toward writing and speaking; the working of the Lord in her life and others; Millicent Lindo and the Westside Holistic Center of Chicago - its counseling work and other ministries in the black community.
Provenance
The materials in this collection were given to the Archives of the Billy Graham Center by Beverly Yates in May 1994.
Accession: 94-45
September 5, 2000LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 94-45
Type of Material: Audio Tapes
The following items are located in the Audio Tape file.
T1 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, 65 minutes, one side only. Interview of Beverly Yates by Paul Ericksen on May 16, 1994, at the Billy Graham Center Archives.
T2 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, 68 minutes, one side only. Continuation of interview of Beverly Yates by Paul Ericksen on May 16, 1994, at the Billy Graham Center Archives.
T3 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, 45 minutes, one side only. Conclusion of interview of Beverly Yates by Paul Ericksen on May 16, 1994, at the Billy Graham Center Archives.