Broadus Henry Hogan

4 July 1888—30 July 1953

BROADUS HENRY (B.H.) HOGAN was a preacher and musician, whose career was wide-ranging. Hogan was born 4 July 1888 in or near Bibb County, Georgia, the son of Anderson Hogan and Sarah Lamar, sixth of seven children. Not much is known of his early life or upbringing, except by 1909 he was known as a pastor and was living in Abbeville, South Carolina. In February 1910, Hogan was arrested on a warrant for a larceny charge in Georgia and kept temporarily in a jail in Greenwood, South Carolina. While there, he convinced the other black inmates to stage an escape, first by asking the attending deputy to let them be baptized, then by pretending Hogan had died suddenly, but their plans were foiled when the sheriff’s deputy was not fooled.[1] He was extradited to Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia, where his exploits were further described:

Sheriff S.O. Swan, of Greensboro, Ga., came over last week and carried back with him the Rev. B.H. Hogan, colored, who is wanted in this county on three charges: larceny, larceny after trust, and for cheating and defrauding. The Rev. Hogan is said to be one of the slickest and smoothest propositions they have had in jail here in a long time. . . . Hogan also was a sort of a poet and all sorts of a fellow. It appears that he was denounced by the Rev. G.T. Moore, colored, here in the Morris Chapel Baptist Church, but as some of the leaders thought he would get a pretty good collection, he was allowed to keep on until his arrest followed.[2]

In the 1910 census, Hogan was counted on April 15 as an inmate in the Greene county jail. In September 1916, he was described as someone who had “traveled extensively for number of years as a great social worker and organizer,” from Macon, Georgia, and he was organizing a large musical-educational conference (a “chautauqua”) in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Shiloh Baptist Church. “A big chorus of 75 voices is being rehearsed every night under his direction for this occasion.”[3] He had also expressed an interest in settling there permanently. Hogan supplied an account of the activities of the event to the Birmingham News on September 30, which included several speeches on racial and other social issues, plus musical performances.

On 20 July 1917, he married Luerena Freeman (born 5 June 1898) at Bessemer, Jefferson County, Alabama. Their first child, Carl Dirton Hogan, was born 23 October 1917 in Tuskegee, Alabama. On his WWI draft card, dated 12 Sept. 1918, Broadus was living in Tallapoosa, Georgia, described as a piano tuner, married to Luerena. They had a daughter, Luerena, on 3 November 1919. In 1920, they were living in Atlanta, Broadus being described as a piano tuner, Luerena as a dress maker, with their two children, Carl and Luerena. They had their third child, Marian Alberta, on 12 June 1921 in Columbus, Georgia. On 11 September 1921, Hogan was in Chicago for the National Convention of the Negro Equal Rights League, at which he was nominated to be recording secretary for the group. In 1922, while pastor of the First African Baptist Church of Columbus, he was invited to write a weekly column called “Notes Among the Negro People” for the Enquirer-Sun in an attempt to convey positive news about blacks in the community, because the manager of the paper “became aware that his paper almost never mentioned Negroes except in connection with criminal cases and lynchings.”[4] Those columns ran until the spring of 1924.

Hogan’s fourth child, Sadie Mae, was born in 2 February 1924 in Columbus. On 9 October 1924, Hogan spoke at the Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Association meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, visiting from his stated home of Columbus, Georgia. In July of 1926, Hogan preached a series of revival messages at Shiloh Baptist Church in Akron, Ohio. He was described in the Akron Beacon Journal as being a “famous evangelist and singer” from Atlanta: “Dr. Hogan is one of the best known evangelists of the colored race, having conducted meetings in Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. He is also widely known as a lecturer, writer, and publicist.”[5]

In November 1926, Hogan was installed as pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. One of his first major initiatives was to launch a fundraising drive to pay off the church’s debt. “Obligations of the church, according to a statement by its pastor, the Rev. B.H. Hogan, have been recently increased by the institution of some new features including an employment bureau which employs a secretary and is prepared to render free service to the public.”[6] On 27 April 1928, Hogan was made president of the Inter-Denominational Ministerial Alliance, a collective of 27 pastors in the city. Hogan also served on the Benefit Board of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. from 1928 to 1930 and probably attended the national conventions during that period. In the 1930 U.S. Census, Hogan and his family were counted in Pensacola with Luerena and their children, Carl, Luerena, Marion, and Sadie. They lived at 319 E. Jackson St.

By 1933, Hogan had relocated to Indianapolis, where he served as pastor of North Side Baptist Church, located at 30th and Ethel (no longer in existence). He carried his appreciation for interdenominational collaboration into his new position. In February of 1934, he preached in a Baptist-Methodist revival series involving Campbell Chapel A.M.E.Z., Barnes Avenue M.E., 25th Street Baptist, and North Side Baptist. Around this time, Hogan developed a songwriting partnership with Laura Belle Davis (1909–), a local musician. Together they wrote at least two songs, “Amen” and “On My Journey Home,” which were copyrighted by the Rodeheaver company of Chicago in 1935, as arranged by Texas musician E. Edwin Young (1895–1980). The refrain of their “Amen” hymn would later become famous via recordings and performances by the Wings Over Jordan choir (first recorded in 1948 for RCA Victor), using an adaptation by composer-conductor Jester Hairston. Hogan’s time at North Side was relatively brief; he was succeeded by Rev. James T. Crable in July 1935.

Around this time, Hogan split from his wife and children. The cause and the timing are unclear. Luerena and the children ended up in St. Louis by 1940, except Carl, who was living in Waco, Texas, when he registered for the WWII draft on 16 October 1940. In 1936, Broadus Hogan was living in Cairo, Illinois, the southernmost city in the state, on the Mississippi River, but he appeared as a guest organist for a three-day choral engagement in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 6–8 July 1936. The following year, he was engaged in leading a chautauqua-style conference at the Colored First Baptist Church of Jackson, Tennessee, 28–30 November 1937. In July 1938, he preached for several weeks around Bowling Green, Kentucky, and is said to have been a resident of Chicago. Soon after, he was apparently engaged in rebuilding a damaged pipe organ, because on 19 September 1938, he conducted a musical program at the Fourth Street Baptist Church of Owensboro, Kentucky, where he was advertised as “pipe organ builder and song composer,” presenting an evening of “original Hogan gospel songs and spirituals” in celebration of the restoration of their organ.[7]

In October 1938, Hogan was hired as pastor of the Fifth Ward Baptist Church of Clarksville, Tennessee. While there, he developed a relationship with Ella Ree Roberts (1910–1958), a graduate of Fisk University and a teacher, daughter of Ewing D. and Ella Roberts, longtime residents of Clarksville. They married on 7 August 1942 in Phillips County, Arkansas, apparently an elopement, owing to the age difference of about 23 years. In March 1943, the church held a fundraiser in anticipation of either remodeling their existing building or financing a new one. “The Fifth Ward Baptist Church is one of the oldest colored churches in Clarksville and time has treated it harshly,” said the announcement.[8] On 21 May 1944, Hogan delivered a commencement sermon at Clarksville’s Burt High School auditorium. After nine years of service at Fifth Ward, the church held a send-off reception for Mr. & Mrs. Hogan in December 1947 to honor their new appointment at Bethesda Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas.

Hogan and his wife were formally installed at Bethesda Baptist Church in February 1948, and they served there a little over four years, where he oversaw the construction of a new facility at W. Grand Ave. and Compress St. The first service in that structure was 17 February 1952. Shortly thereafter, Hogan, now aged 64, retired to Clarksville, Tennessee, to be near Ella’s family. Hogan died 30 July 1953 while visiting a relative in Chicago; his body was returned to Clarksville and buried there. Ella went back to teaching in the local school system. She died in surgery just a few years later, 1 August 1958, leaving no descendants.

After his first marriage disintegrated, Hogan does not seem to have had much contact with his children. Carl Hogan became a successful guitarist, notable for playing a guitar riff on “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman (They’ll Do It Every Time),” a song recorded by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five in 1946, which was later imitated by Chuck Berry on “Johnny B. Goode” (1958) and the Beach Boys on “Fun, Fun, Fun” (1964). He played with Jordan on several other tracks from 1945 to 1949. He also released a 45-rpm single on Fury Records, “Your Love (Is All I Need)” / “I Love You So” (1957). Carl married Bessie and had Carl Jr. He died 8 July 1977.

The elder Lurena remarried to — Chisholm; she died in St. Louis in May 1973. The younger Lurena died 9 August 1997 in or near St. Louis, unmarried. According to her niece Margaret, “She was a musical person, singing in the choir and playing piano. She held a steady government job and retired with a pension. She was a tall woman, about 5-10, and was beautiful.”

Marian married — McClelland by 1962, and had one daughter, Margaret. Marian earned a Bachelor of Education degree from Harris Teachers College in St. Louis in 1965. She died 2 June 1994 in St. Louis.

Sadie married — Smith by 1960; she died 7 January 1992.

Laura Belle Davis was born 20 Oct. 1909 in Indianapolis, daughter of William Scott Davis and Clara Montague. She lived her entire life in Indianapolis and was known for being an accompanist. At the time of her father’s death in 1965, she was still single. Her date of death is presently unknown.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
1 September 2021

1. “Slick jail birds planned to escape,” Evening Index (Greenwood, SC: 24 Feb. 1910), p. 2.

2. “Colored Reverend in Toils,” Bamberg Herald (Bamberg, SC: 10 Mar. 1910), p. 3.

3. Oscar W. Adams, “What negroes are doing,” Birmingham News (Birmingham, AL: 17 Sept. 1916), p. 11.

4. Arnold Shankman, “Julian Harris and the Negro,” Phylon, vol. 35, no. 4 (1974), pp. 442–456: JSTOR

5. “Famous evangelist conducts services,” Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, OH: 10 July 1926), p. 10.

6. “Negroes will stage drive for church,” Pensacola News Journal (FL: 30 Oct. 1927), p. 28.

7. “Music program tonight,” Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, KY: 19 Sept. 1938), p. 8.

8. “Fifth Ward Church may be rebuilt,” The Leaf-Chronicle (Clarksville, TN: 26 Mar. 1943), p. 1.