Imagine being born to an impoverished family in Alabama in 1900.
One that survived on subsistence farming, and because of this work, you only made it to the third grade in school. This was the early life of Gertrude Williams. In a large family, everyone must contribute, and she did so mainly in the fields. That was before she became enamored with church and serving the Lord. This was a determination she made while she was still a teenager. This decision would mark the rest of her life. She married in 1928 and became a devoted Rose Hill Baptist Church member in Columbus, Georgia.
Her encounter with God came in the form of a voice telling her to go and preach. Right away, she took to the streets to preach the gospel and made her way to care for orphans. Soon after answering the call, her husband left her, and their marriage was dissolved.
In 1939, she felt led to the place that specialized in sin in those days, New Orleans. Continuing the work of the Lord, she cared for orphans and fed food and the gospel to whoever she could find. Gertrude traveled around New Orleans and sang on corners to raise money for the mission. She added Sister to her name, thus becoming Sister Gertrude Morgan. After a revelatory vision in 1955, she declared herself the bride of Christ and began to paint signs and small paintings to communicate the gospel and bring people to know Christ.
Sister Gertrude was known to conduct an entire church service, including preaching and teaching, with only one instrument, a tambourine, which she shook with much vigor and enthusiasm. She hand-painted signs, fans for the sweltering heat, and even hand-painted paper megaphones meant for declaring the gospel. She’d taught herself to paint using crayons and materials to make the signs that adorned the outside of the mission.
An art collector discovered her paintings around 1960, spurring her first Art Show in the space now known as Preservation Hall in New Orleans, a legendary jazz venue. After another 10 years, she recorded her first album. Let’s Make a Record! is a recording filled to the brim with a wholehearted devotion that many don’t reach in their lifetimes.
The sounds of her clapping and playing the tambourine blend perfectly with the Southern Accent for singing, born in Alabama and perfected in New Orleans. Her art invariably became an expansion of her work serving the poor at the mission.
Sister Gertrude Morgan experienced the hardships of life, yet she still embraced a calling more significant than her own life. She is widely considered an outsider who wrote her own path in art and music. As is often seen, a unique life deserves a unique path. She has painted one that, over 40 years after her death, has yet to be duplicated.
Nathan “Bam” Stanton has been an artist working in mediums that include painting, writing and speaking for over 20 years. His most recent journey included working as a pastor in Chicago for 13 years and founding a not-for-profit, Forgive.Us., an organization dedicated to encouraging artists to speak out about injustice. It’s founding was followed by a 20,000 mile RV trip around the country to host Forgive Us events. His heart is to build a bridge on which division in America can heal. Bam is now embarking on his next mission, to motivate and inspire businesses, organizations and schools into forgiveness, resilience and creativity. His work has been also been featured in WBBM Chicago, RV Today, Rootless and Rova Magazines. He currently resides in Oak Park, Illinois with his wife and 5 children.
