STAND BY ME

Composer: Charles Albert Tindley

Rev. Charles A. Tindley, b. July 7, 1851, Berlin, Md., d. July 26, 1933, Philadelphia, Pa.; American Methodist minister and gospel music composer. Born in 1851 to a free mother and a slave father, Tindley spent his childhood among slaves. In his teens he taught himself to read and acquired a fair amount of liberal-arts and theological education, largely through correspondence courses. After having been ordained a Methodist minister, he returned as pastor to a church he had previously served as janitor. Eventually he built the church he headed, in Philadelphia, from some 200 parishioners to a membership of over 12,000 in the 1920s. He wrote some 45 hymns, generally to accompany his own sermons, in almost all cases composing the tunes as wel… Go to person page >