Juanita Finnie

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Research record

Juanita Finnie · Proposed-mint record CTL-ESS-0210 · Live page CTL-E-5656 · Entity Depth Program · 393 words · Evidence grade: UNVERIFIED · Census status: PROPOSED · Depth status: EVIDENCE-LIMITED · Researched 2026-10-26

PROPOSED MINT — published ahead of canonical classification. This page publishes CultureTechLens proposed-mint record CTL-ESS-0210 in full, at the founder’s direction (October 25, 2026). The record is a proposal, not yet part of the canonical knowledge graph: its census status is PROPOSED and its evidence grade is UNVERIFIED. Canonical ID assignment, grade review, and merge into the canonical graph take place at the founder’s classification sitting; until then, this page carries the proposed-mint ID beside its live page ID so the two reconcile exactly at the merge.

Juanita Finnie, wife of Deacon John A. Finnie, is one of the five named organizers of Pilgrim Baptist Church of Chicago, and the Congressional Record tribute that preserves the founding account assigns her two specific, consequential acts. Representative Danny K. Davis's tribute of September 10, 2013 (Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, E1274-2) recounts that the Union Grove Prayer Meeting Club met in the Finnie home at 242 East 42nd Street beginning in September 1916, and that after three months of growth "the founder and first Chairman of the Deacon Board, Mr. John A. Finnie, his wife, Juanita, Georgia Hansberry, L. Whitley and S.S. Harkness joined together to organize a Church." Of Juanita Finnie the tribute then records: "Mrs. Finnie suggested the name, Pilgrim Baptist Church and organized the Pilgrim Senior Choir."

Those two acts — naming the congregation and founding its senior choir — are the whole of her documented biography, and they are not small. The name she proposed in 1916 or 1917 is the name the congregation still carries, through its 1922 move into the Adler and Sullivan synagogue building at 3301 South Indiana Avenue, its decades as the church of Thomas A. Dorsey and a national center of gospel music, its 1973 National Register listing and 1981 Chicago Landmark designation, and its survival of the 2006 fire. The choir she organized was the congregation's first: the Pilgrim Senior Choir predates Dorsey's gospel chorus by more than a decade and represents the musical institution of the founding generation, on which the later, famous Pilgrim music ministry was built. Pilgrim's own published church history, which details pastors and buildings from 1916 forward, does not name her — the naming and choir facts survive because the 2013 congressional tribute recorded them, a reminder of how much of Black women's founding labor in Chicago church history is preserved in single sources or not at all.

No other reputable published source located for this build gives Juanita Finnie's birth or death dates, maiden name, birthplace, occupation, or later life, and this record invents none of them. She is documented as a founder in her own right — not only as a founder's wife — on the strength of the tribute's plain text: the name of the church and its first choir were her work. This record is a staged proposal pending the founder's classification sitting.

Why this record is short — EVIDENCE-LIMITED: Juanita Finnie is named in exactly one reputable source located: the 2013 Congressional Record tribute, which supports only the facts stated in the description (co-organizer; proposed the church's name; organized the Pilgrim Senior Choir; the prayer club met in her home). No source found gives her birth/death dates, maiden name, birthplace, occupation, or biography beyond the founding. Pilgrim's own published history does not name her. Chicago Defender archives (1916-17), church records, census and city-directory research would be required to extend this record.

Sources for this record

• Tribute to the Historic Pilgrim Baptist Church — Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, E1274-2 (September 10, 2013) — Congress.gov / U.S. House of Representatives (Hon. Danny K. Davis)
  Claims supported: Juanita Finnie named among the five organizers of the church; 'Mrs. Finnie suggested the name, Pilgrim Baptist Church and organized the Pilgrim Senior Choir'; the prayer club met in the Finnie home at 242 East 42nd Street from September 1916; church purchased the 3301 S. Indiana building in 1922; NRHP 1973; Chicago Landmark December 18, 1981
• Tribute to the Historic Pilgrim Baptist Church — Congressional Record PDF (CREC-2013-09-10, p. E1274) — Congress.gov / Government Publishing Office
  Claims supported: Bound Congressional Record text corroborating the naming and Senior Choir statements
• Church History — Pilgrim Baptist Church, Chicago
  Claims supported: The church's own institutional history (pastors, moves, 1922 purchase of the Adler and Sullivan building) — consulted; it does not name Juanita Finnie, which is itself noted in the record
• Transitions: Threatened — Pilgrim Baptist Church — National Trust for Historic Preservation
  Claims supported: Later history of the congregation Juanita Finnie named: Adler and Sullivan building of 1891, Dorsey era from 1932, 2006 fire

Citations

Published October 26, 2026, at the founder’s direction, from the head-verified staged proposed-mint record in the Entity Depth Program (Essentials Fragment 4, Batch Essential-013). Canonical classification pending. Source: CultureTechLens