[Advertising Card for Ludesta Baskett].

San Antonio, Texas: G. Davenport, [circa 1925]. 8” x 5”. Photographically illustrated advertiser on thin card stock. Good: heavily worn and creased with some losses and tape repairs verso.

This is the only known copy of a marketing piece for Ludesta Baskett an itinerant evangelist. From various newspaper accounts we learn she was born around 1875 and was originally from Madagascar. We first find her in newspapers in 1925, in Porterville, California. A blurb mentioned she was beginning a 15 day revival where she also sang and shows her career was well established as of 1925 as she had already “been instrumental in the conversion of more than 15,000 souls.” Later reports of this particular revival show that Baskett attracted crowds as large as 400. We find numerous mentions of her in California newspapers through 1928.

Baskett pops up in Texas newspapers in 1930 with the Abilene Daily Reporter stating that she was then living in San Antonio and that she was “known far and wide as 'Mother' Baskett and hailed as greatest of negro preachers in spite of her sex.” Over the course of one month, she preached three times a day which led to nearly 300 people getting baptized or enrolling in various churches.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s there were reports of her preaching in Texas, California, Kansas and New Jersey. We find no mention of her after 1941.

The photographer, G. Davenport, was likely African American, as he had a regular advertisement in the San Antonio Black-owned newspaper, The San Antonio Register.

OCLC and Google searches reveal nothing similar. Good. Item #8628

Price: $600.00