Charles Albert Tindley (July 7, 1851 – July 26, 1933) was an American Methodist minister and gospel music composer. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday" is credited as the basis for the U.S. Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome". Another of his hymns is "(Take Your Burden to the Lord and) Leave It There" (1916), as well as "What Are They Doing in Heaven?" (1901). Often referred to as "The Prince of Preachers", he educated himself, became a minister and founded one of the largest Methodist congregations serving the African-American community on the East Coast of the United States. Early life and education Although Tindley was a free man prior to the American Civil War, he had a deep and intimate understanding of the system of slavery in the United States because his father was an enslaved man and because he, himself, had grown up around other enslaved people. Tindley's status was based on antebellum slavery codes which determined that he was a free man because his mother was a free woman. After the Civil War, he moved to Philadelphia, where he found employment as a hod carrier (brick carrier). He and his wife Daisy attended the Bainbridge St. Methodist Episcopal Church. Charles later became the sexton, a job with no salary. Never able to attend school, Tindley learned to read by sitting by fire light and sounding out letters and eventually words from pieces of paper with writing that he found. He mastered reading so well that later he enlisted the help of a Philadelphia synagogue on North Broad St. to learn Hebrew. He later learned Greek by taking a correspondence course through the Boston Theological School. Church Without any degree, Tindley was qualified for ordination in the Methodist Episcopal Church by examination, with high ranking scores. He was ordained as a Deacon in the Delaware Conference in 1887 and as an elder in 1889. As was the practice of the ME church, Tindley was assigned by his bishop to serve as an itinerant pastor staying a relatively short time at each charge: 1885 to Cape May, New Jersey; 1887 to South Wilmington, Delaware; 1889 to Odessa, Delaware; 1891 to Pocomoke, Maryland; 1894 to Fairmount, Maryland; and 1897 to Wilmington, Delaware, at Ezion Methodist Church. In 1900 he became the Presiding Elder of the Wilmington District. Tindley then became the pastor of the same church at which he had been