New York's Harlem has been a world of African American religion and churches since the early nineteenth century, and no church has been more central to that world than the Abyssinian Baptist Church. Indeed, Abyssinian's importance as a place of black evangelical worship and social activism extends beyond Harlem, making it one of the most significant churches in the United States. With this book, the four co-authors have provided the comprehensive history of Abyssinian that has long been needed. It makes a substantial contribution to the history of African American churches, as well as to the fields of African American studies, United States history, American studies, and religious studies.

The book is divided into three parts. The main body of the text recounts the history of the church from its founding in 1808 to the mid 2000s. There are two powerful afterwards written by Cornel West and Cheryl Townsend Gilkes respectively, and several appendixes containing documents such as the church's “mission statement,” pastors' sermons, and a photography gallery. Basing their work on a rich trove of documentation unearthed in 2007, the authors trace the history of Abyssinian in part one, providing a convincing explanation for the church's early history, particularly its name, which has been shrouded in mystery. After a strong and sophisticated statement about the convergence of “history and memory,” the authors contend that much of Abyssinian's early history is tantamount to “myth.” The central myth is that “Ethiopian coffee merchants” founded the church when they walked out of New York's First Baptist Church in protest over segregated seating. There is no evidence for this, however, in the newly discovered documents and Abyssinian Baptist Church has no real historical connection to “Abyssinia.” The likely origin of the name is to be found in the racial and ethnic nomenclature of the time. During the early nineteenth century, “African,” “Ethiopian,” and “Abyssinian” were often used interchangeably: “Therefore, Abyssinian Baptist Church just as easily could be understood as African Baptist Church” (4).

Remarkably, Abyssinian has only had nine pastors in its long history. Witness tells that history through those pastors, beginning with Thomas Paul of Boston, Massachusetts. Although each one has been illustrious in his own right, the names Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. are synonymous with Abyssinian Baptist Church and the several chapters on this father-son duo are so profuse that they could have legitimately comprised the entire volume. The Powells were at the helm of the church during some of the most significant moments in American history, including the two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Great Migration, and the Civil Rights movement. Powell, Sr. is solely responsible for setting the “Social Gospel” activist agenda of the church, and subsequent pastors have all endeavored to enact his notion of “the model church.” Powell, Jr. nearly eclipses his father in significance to the history of Abyssinian. With a personality that was “larger than life” and a flamboyant lifestyle to match, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. transformed his father's “model church” into a “modern church.” While serving as the church's head pastor, he also served as a New York City Council Member and a member of the United States House of Representatives. Under his leadership the church became “a center for significant social protest” (163) and he became one of the city's most controversial ministers. As the authors note, “there was, in the twentieth century, perhaps no religious or political figure more controversial and complicated than Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.” (231).

A chapter on the ministry of Abyssinian's eighth pastor, Samuel DeWitt Proctor, precedes the chapters on the church's current pastor, Calvin O. Butts III, which close the main portion of the book. Witness depicts Calvin Butts as someone who stands squarely in the tradition of Abyssinian, faithful to the church's history and its traditions. Indeed, as the authors assert, the church's choice of him in 1989 as their leader was due to their own commitment to “both tradition and innovation” (288). Having been a part of Abyssinian's ministerial staff for many years, Butts stepped into his new role to take the church into the twenty-first century. Politically engaged, socially astute with a keen business sense to match, Pastor Butts is also depicted as a visionary. According to Witness, he has greatly extended the church's reach, expanded the scope of its programs, and rearticulated what constitutes the work of the church. Campaigns against alcohol and cigarette ads in Harlem that disproportionally target blacks, protests for the protection of black women, the Thurgood Marshall Academy, and the multimillion dollar Abyssinian Development Corporation are all the vision of Calvin Butts. He seemingly personifies the history and mission of Abyssinian Baptist Church.

The wealth of the documentary sources used in Witness is at the same time the book's strongest and weakest features. The sheer amount of the material packed into the volume is often overwhelming. The ten appendixes, which take up nearly a third of the book, appear to be leftover material that found no place in the main text. Perhaps due to the large amount of material, as well as the multiple authorship, Witness also at times reads more like a greatly expanded “church bulletin” than a historical text. It demonstrates a painstakingly strict adherence to the methods of historical research in the beginning, but the rigor tends to collapse in the latter parts. As a work of history, it is not seamless and it is better at the distant past than the more recent past. It also does not contain the types of tensions one comes to expect from historical volumes. While the lives of women are given requisite notice, for example, there is virtually no analysis of gender or of class. This is an odd oversight, given the church's prominence, size, wealth, and the context of Harlem. In all, however, this book is an extraordinary accomplishment and is certain to find its place among the most significant studies of African American churches in the United States.