Mary Magdalena Tate Lewis. (January 5,1871-December 28 1930)

Founded a Pentecostal denomination and became of the first American women to hold the

title,Bishop.Born in Vanleer, Tennessee to Belfied Street and Nancy (Hall)Street,she married her first husband,David Lewis,at age nineteen;they had two sons,Walter Curtis Lewis and Feliz Early Lewis.As her marriage broke up,she began preaching close to home.She soon traveled hundred miles as she crossed state lines into Kentucky and Illinois.Along the way,she gathered converts into "Do Rights'bands so named because people responded to her message by wanting to "do right."These associations in Illinois,Missouri,Kentucky,and Tennessee purchased property to house a meeting place for their worship services of song,testimony,Bible study,and preaching.In 1903,she gathered these groups into the Church of the Living God,the Pillar and Ground of the Truth.As the number of Churches multiplied,she held a General Assembly in 1908 in Greenville Alabama.During the ten days,she ordained ministers,officially incorporated the denomination,and presided as bishop.The denomination grew rapidly and spread into twenty states,prompting her to appoint bishops to oversee churches within state boundaries.Her sons worked alongside her.To solidify further the denomination,she assembled its doctrine,rules,rituals,and governing structures into a Decree Book and distributed into the churches.At the core of Mary's teaching stood the concept of cleanness.Cleanness,she taughone must direct one's entire life,from eating and drinking,to marriage and family,even to the way one participates in social and community affairs.Over time she divorced three husbands to avoid association with their uncleanness.She chose Nashville for her denominational headquarters,and in 1923,with her approval,the denomination purchased eleven 50 by 140 city lots for $5,000,including a large brick building with five rooms.The publishing house opened in the building after it was renovated and equipped with printing presses,paper cutters,print type and type-setting equipment.Part-time workers hired from African-American schools in the area staffed the publishing house.For two decades from this location,the New and Living Way Publishing Company printed Sunday School literature,music,and several periodicals.Make provided open and visible access for women's leadership.She purposefully used generic language