Recently, I was invited to participate in The Black Church Documentary National Conference Zoom meeting with Dr. Henry L. Gates Jr. along with many pastors from across the nation.
"The Black Church: This is our story, This is our song" is a documentary series that will premiere on PBS, Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 16-17 at 8 p.m. (hashtag #BlackChurchPBS). Everyone should tune in and see the truth and power of the Black Church, how it has sustained us, kept us going as a people, and can keep us going in the environment today, during the Black History Month.
As I listened to all the wise and wonderful words of the pastors during our conversation regarding the Black Church, I realized it's not how large the church is but its effectiveness. However, I could not help but feel sad as I thought about the treatment and the bashing of the Black Church locally.
The institution that has kept us and brought Black folk. Mockery or criticism cast a crimson stain upon our ancestors that banded together and worked hard to build a powerful institution for people of color to worship and serve God/YHWH. Why would someone make our ancestors look like clowns because they could not speak the King's English? Disparaging and disrespectful remarks made in a public or private setting reveals the character and lack of pride in the history of Black people. How can we tell the young what we relied on if we trash the Black Church?
These things are real, the Transatlantic slave trade; forced family dissolution; centuries of degradation based on race (e.g., slavery, peonage, lynching, Jim Crow, and structural racism); myriad socioeconomic disparities; and, now, mass incarceration, and we made it through all of this.
James Weldon Johnson said it best in his song, "God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou Who hast by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee. Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee. Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land." The Black Church represents the heart and soul of the Black community. The Black Church is a place where we met our Lord and Savior Jesus/Yeshua, a place to find comfort amid grief. The Black Church is one of the institutions passed on to us, and it still stands as a beacon of light and hope for so many, demanding total respect without saying.
Our ancestors and elders endured much, and regardless of our frailness; the spirit of our fathers should be above reproach. "We come a long way, bearing our burdens in the heat of the day, had hard trials, but we know the Lord will make a-way, we've come a long way, a mighty long way." -- Negro Spiritual.
It was in the year 1843 slaves living on the Johnson Plantation in the Richland Township, Noble Lake and Cottondale area were granted permission to organize a Baptist Church. Elm trees were plenteous on the front lawn where the church would be built; thus, the origin of the name Elm Grove.
An online record found an 1860 Census from Jefferson County which listed all slaveholders at that time and records have Robt. Johnson the owner of 64 slaves in the Richland Township which is the Noble Lake-Cottondale area.
Ninety-year-old Ora Foster-Roby, now residing in Kansas City, and the late Arlease Walker, who recently passed away at 101 years old, stated: "There were two plantations in this area, the Johnson and Couch Plantations with Highway 65 South serving as the dividing line for both plantations. The Johnson Plantation where Elm Grove Baptist Church was organized was north of Highway 65 and the Couch Plantation was south of Highway 65."
This writer believes the African American slaves from the Couch Plantation attended the Elm Grove Baptist Church also.
Elm Grove Baptist Church would become the first organized Baptist Church in Arkansas for African Americans. Following every revival, all new converts at Elm Grove Baptist Church were baptized in Noble Lake. Sister Idella Hunter, a devoted member of Elm Grove Baptist Church, led a fundraising effort to purchase the first and only church bell by selling apples for five cents on Sundays and through the week to secure enough money to purchase the bell.
The members of Elm Grove Baptist Church transported the bell from the Richland Township in the Noble Lake and Cottondale area to its present location where it proudly sits in front of the church at 3114 S. Mississippi St. on a concrete slab. A Cornerstone was laid by the Elm Grove Baptist Church in 1914 under the leadership of Pastor L. C. Culliver and church officers, J.W. Watkins, C. Huggins, A. J. Jones, F. M. Mathew, S. Nelson, and C. Lee. The Corner Stone remains in the possession of the Elm Grove Baptist Church.
On Sunday, April 1, 1939, shortly after 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a tornado developed in the Noble Lake-Cottondale area, roaring through the community causing havoc and destruction. Huge pieces of tin and wood whirled through the air as the storm unleashed its powerful fury. The Elm Grove Baptist Church was located directly in the path of the storm and quickly collapsed from the force of the high winds. Within two minutes the storm was over leaving behind it wrecked homes and many injuries. Only one of the injured members still lives today, Ora Foster-Roby, who remains a loyal Elm Grove Baptist Church member.
The destruction of the tornado was reported in the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic Newspaper on Wednesday morning April 19, 1939. The Elm Grove Baptist Church membership led by Pastor Joe L Frazier, its board of deacons and community friends came together and helped rebuild the Elm Grove Baptist Church and worship resumed. Elm Grove Baptist Church also served as a public school for the Noble Lake and Cottondale area until 1947 according to the record of the Pine Bluff School District.
Many African American children received their early education in the Elm Grove Baptist Church building. White students in the area attended school close to Elm Grove Baptist Church, however, as a result of the major damage caused by the fierce tornado winds; Black students attended school at the white church and white children were bused to another school in Moscow. During the rebuilding of Elm Grove Baptist Church, African American students always got a day out of school whenever a funeral service was conducted at the church.
Every Friday afternoon all the young men at the school would reset chairs and benches for the Sunday church services. Some of those who attend school at Elm Grove Baptist Church are still alive today and were very instrumental in providing much of the church history. In 1965 family members of Elm Grove Baptist Church moved from the Richland Township in the Noble Lake and Cottondale area and settled at their present location at Pine Bluff, where they continue serving the Almighty God with great fervor. After Elm Grove Baptist Church relocated to Pine Bluff, Taylor Lake located southeast of the church was utilized for baptizing new converts for a brief period.
September 3, 1995, the church decided to move from two Sundays a month to full-time service under the leadership of Pastor Jesse C. Turner.
Contributors to the history of Elm Grove Baptist Church are Sis. Ora Foster-Roby; Deacon Johnnie Taylor; Sis. Arlease Walker; Deacon Willie Perkins; Sis. Marie Franklin; Sis. O. T. Lawson; Deacon Elimuel Dolls Sr.; Deacon Hill Burnett; Bro. Earnest Hunter [son of Idella Hunter]; Sis. Helen McGhee; Rev. David D. Walker; Pine Bluff School District rural and other small schools; Pine Bluff Daily Graphic Newspaper and the Star City Branch Library Hobby Genealogy Group. The history was revised in September 2017.
Rev. Jesse C. Turner is pastor of Elm Grove Baptist Church and president of the Pine Bluff Faith Community Coalition Ministerial Alliance.