early 1934. The Peace Mission Movement practiced a form of communal socialism in which profits from individual Peace Mission businesses were redistributed within the movement. Father Divine was impressed with the Communist Party's commitment to civil rights and an alliance was formed. In spite of this alliance, the movement was largely apolitical until the Harlem Riot of 1935. Based on a rumor of police killing a black teenager, the Harlem Riot left four dead and caused over $1 million in property damage in Father Divine's neighborhood. Father Divine's outrage at this and other racial injustices fueled a keener interest in politics. In January 1936, the movement organized a convention to create political platforms incorporating the doctrine of Father Divine. Among other things, the delegates opposed school segregation and many of Franklin D. Roosevelt's social programs, which they interpreted as "handouts". Other planks called for the nationalization and government control of the major banks and industries. 1930s and 1940s: Peace Mission Movement scandals Reports of improper sexual conduct would slant much of the public perception of the Peace Mission throughout its stay in the public spotlight. Several highly publicized Peace Mission sex and other scandals became part of the public record on the Mission. 1940s: the death of Peninniah (Mother) Divine, the rise of Sweet Angel and the doctrine of reincarnation Mrs Peninniah Divine, also called Mother Divine, had been married to Father Divine some 30 years at the time of her death. She died in seclusion amongst what was, at the time, the Peace Mission's farms and other rural upstate New York business collectively called the "Promised Land". She was buried in an unknown and unmarked grave. Peninniah Divine had been prominently active in the itinerant ministry of George Baker Jr from the Valdosta, Georgia, days and was regularly covered in the Peace Mission press up till about 1940 or 1941 before coverage of her simply stopped and she disappeared from Peace Mission life. Almost no one knew that Mother Divine had died until 70-year-old Father Divine's remarriage to his 21-year-old white Canadian secretary, Edna Rose Ritchings, also known as "Sweet Angel" in the movement, became public knowledge after her visa status came up for review. Father Divine claimed that his young secretary was his deceased wife returned. Critics of the movement believed that the elderly and supposedly celibate Father Divine's controversial marriage to his 21-year-old secretary would destroy the