In 1906, Seymour moved to Los Angeles, California, where he preached the Pentecostal message and sparked the Azusa Street Revival.

Seymour's leadership of the revival and publication of The Apostolic Faith newspaper launched him into prominence within the young Pentecostal movement.

In 1884, when Seymour was fourteen years old, his parents built a house about a mile and a half from his birthplace adjacent to the New Providence Baptist Church in Centerville that the family likely attended while remaining Catholics.

[5] Seymour grew up during a period of heightened racism that likely led to his decision to move north, away from the persecution endured by southern blacks around the turn of the century.

[9] In Indianapolis, Seymour was introduced to the Holiness movement through Daniel S. Warner's "Evening Light Saints", a group whose distinctive beliefs included non-sectarianism, faith healing, foot washing, the imminent Second Coming of Christ, and separation from "the world" in actions, beliefs, and lifestyle, including not wearing jewelry or neckties.

[14] Between 1895 and 1905, Seymour also met other holiness leaders, including John Graham Lake and Charles Parham, who was leading a growing movement in the Midwest.

Although speaking in tongues had occurred in some isolated religious circles as early as 1897,[16] Parham began to practice it in 1900 and made the doctrine central to his theological system, believing it to be a sign that a Christian had received the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Pentecostals identify Ozman as the first person in modern times to receive the gift of speaking in tongues as an answer to prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

[24][25] Within a month of studying under Parham, Seymour received an invitation to pastor a holiness mission in Los Angeles founded by Julia Hutchins, who intended to become a missionary to Liberia.

The association president removed Seymour from the pastorate, forbidding him to teach his doctrine of baptism in the Spirit in the holiness church.

[31] To help him minister to these people as they sought the baptism of the Spirit, he contacted two friends in Houston: Lucy Farrow and Joseph Warren, who he invited to join them at the Asberry's home.

Others joined them, including a former Baptist named Frank Bartleman,[31] who would later publish a detailed account of the Azusa Street Revival.

The size of the meetings at the Asberry's house continued to grow as word got out about the new teachings among the Los Angeles holiness sector.

Seymour took his text, as was expected, from Acts 2:4: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

[35] Three days later, on April 12, after a long evening spent in prayer, Seymour himself received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.

[36] By that time, the group was far too large for the Asberry's house; at one point the weight of the overflowing attendees caused the front porch to collapse, forcing Seymour to look for a new location.

Well-known names in the early Pentecostal movement like Parham, Lake, F. F. Bosworth, Thomas Hezmalhalch, and many others attended the revival and then took what they had received to the mission fields.

Newspapers published such titles as, "Religious Fanaticism Creates Wild Scene", "Holy Kickers Carry on Mad Orgies", "All Night Meetings in Azusa Street Church, Negroes and Whites Give Themselves Over to Strange Outbursts of Zeal", "Whites And Blacks Mix in a Religious Frenzy", "Wives Say They Left Husbands to Follow Preacher", "Disgusting Scenes at Azusa Street Church", and "Crazed Girls in Arms of Black Men.

After observing some ecstatic practices and racial mixing in worship, he went to the pulpit and began to preach that God was disgusted at the state of the revival.

[48] Parham launched a racially tinged assault on what he deemed fanaticism and religious anarchy and demanded reforms that included the outright dismissal of many of Seymour's key aides.

Seymour responded by recanting an earlier acknowledgement of Parham's authority and declaring the Holy Ghost to be the mission's only leader.

[52] Seymour's marriage to Jennie Evans Moore on May 13, 1908, did not sit well with his secretary, Clara Lum, who had already begun showing allegiance to Crawford.

[54] Without possession of the mailing list, Seymour lost control of the newspaper, and his authority over the burgeoning Pentecostal revival began to slip.

[43] Lum and Crawford refused to give control of the paper back to Seymour when he and others went to Portland, and with no recourse left to him, he returned empty-handed to Los Angeles.

Seymour remained the pastor of the Apostolic Faith Mission until his death, but his significant contributions to the larger American Pentecostal movement were largely minimized by his contemporaries.

[60] Although his message had spread around the world, by 1914 Seymour's congregation on Azusa Street had shrunk to a small, local, Black American church.

[69] By 1907, missionaries from Azusa Street had reached Mexico, Canada, Western Europe, the Middle East, West Africa, and parts of Asia.