Bishop C.M. “Sweet Daddy” Grace Lane (Manhattan)
Present name:None
Location:At the intersection of West 124th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard
Honoree:  Daddy Grace (1881?-1960) was born Marcelino Manoel da Graca on the island of Brava in Cape Verde. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 19 and assumed the name Charles Manuel Grace. He was ordained a minister by Charles Harrison Mason, founder and presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ. In 1919, he established the United House of Prayer for All People. In 1933, after years of expanding the network of churches under the United House of Prayer for All People, he formally established a church in Harlem in 1933 located at 336 West 126th Street. As the number of congregants grew, in 1938, the church relocated to its current location at 271 West 124th Street. Under his leadership, programming at the United House of Prayer for All People encouraged strong families, education, youth services, music, and adult literacy. The Bishop was patriotic and had each of his churches painted red, white, and blue. The Bishop contributed $10,000 to the U.S. Government during World War II, as he was impressed by the gallantry of the “Harlem Hellfighters.” To address social problems in Harlem he ran a soup kitchen to help the local hungry; he insisted on local community-based labor on his construction projects; and provided a retail store on West 125th Street to serve as an incubator space for local entrepreneurs. Bishop Grace also led public seminars to teach local Harlem residents how to access then-new programs such as Social Security, Workers Compensation, and Unemployment Compensation. By the time of his death in 1960, Bishop C.M. “Sweet Daddy” Grace had launched over 100 churches across the United States and had an established global presence. (Perkins)
LL:2022/54