William J. Seymour (1870–1922) was born to former slaves Simon and Phyllis Salabar in Centerville, Louisiana, on May 2. He and his seven brothers and sisters attended the Catholic Church of the Assumption in Franklin before attending New Providence Baptist Church in Centerville. In the 1890s, like thousands of other southern Blacks, he traveled north along the routes of the former Underground Railroad and lived variously in Memphis, TN, St. Louis, MO, Indianapolis, IN, Cincinnati, OH, and elsewh…