The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) continues to make progress on its effort to document the Black Presbyterian experience through the African American Leaders and Congregations Collecting Initiative (AALC).
As staff members at the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) further familiarize ourselves with the contents of the Religious News Service Photograph Collection, we have discovered powerful photos that speak to the experiences of African American Christians. These images, these moments captured by a lens, allow us to time travel, revisiting the tumultuous and varied history of the mid-20th century, as the collection spans the years 1945 to 1982.
This month, in celebration of Black History Month, we want to share some of the images that grabbed our attention and pulled at our heartstrings. We encourage you to browse digitized RNS images and our African American History Digital Collection in Pearl Digital Collections to find your own.
Mary McLeod Bethune was an American activist, humanitarian, and — above all — an educator. Born on July 10, 1875, in South Carolina, Mary was the 15th of 17 children. Her parents, Samuel and Patsy McLeod, were formerly enslaved, and most of her siblings had been born into slavery. As a child, she worked hard with her parents and siblings on their own farm. Her passion for education started at a young age when the granddaughter of her mother’s former owner snatched a book away from Mary, shaming her for not being able to read.
The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) has created an online tool providing chronological information about the Black Presbyterian experience reaching back to the 1800s.
The new interactive timeline currently includes over 70 entries ranging from biographies of African American Presbyterian leaders to information on the founding of historically Black institutions in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor denominations. PHS staff worked for months to add new entries to the timeline, combing through materials and histories in the archives to share with the public.