By Susan Shinn
sshinn@salisburypost.com
Organizers of a new exhibit at Rowan Museum hope to underscore the importance of record-keeping in African American churches.
“Early Rowan African-American Churches” opens with a reception on Sunday from 1-4 p.m. at the museum, 202 N. Main St.
The exhibit displays artifacts from more than a dozen African-American churches in Rowan County.
The exhibit’s sponsors are Dr. Stephen Furr and Centralina Orthopaedics, Attorney Fredrick Wellington Evans, Attorney Darrell Hancock, Hairston Funeral Home, Noble and Kelsey Funeral Home and Rowan Funeral Services.The exhibit will run through late May.
In considering the exhibit, chairman Raemi Evans, who’s being assisted by curator Mary Jane Fowler, wanted congregations that were more than 100 years old. There are many of them, she admits.
“I wanted to make sure I got a cross-section of the county and the denominations,” Evans says. “I had excellent cooperation from churches.”
The oldest, Henderson Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Salisbury, is approaching its 200th anniversary.
Other churches in the exhibit are Crown in Glory Lutheran Church, Salisbury; First Calvary Baptist Church, Salisbury; Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, East Spencer; Moore’s Chapel AME Zion Church; Salisbury; Sandy Ridge AME Zion Church, Landis; Mount Tabor Presbyterian Church, Cleveland; Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, Woodleaf; Mount Zion Baptist Church, Salisbury; New Hope AME Zion Church, East Spencer; New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Salisbury; Soldiers Memorial AME Zion Church, Salisbury; Trinity Presbyterian (USA) Church, Salisbury; White Rock AME Zion Church, Granite Quarry.Evans says that the congregations represented are large and small.
“So many churches are celebrating their anniversaries now,” she says. “We hope this will help churches in organizing their own histories.”
Evans acknowledges that many church histories have been lost over the years.
This was the case at Crown in Glory, which was formed by four rural Lutheran churches, according to Shirley Graeber, who’s a member there.
“My grandfather was on a plantation in China Grove,” she says, “and many of the slaves went to church with their owners.”
Graeber’s uncle developed a church in the area. Later when other churches wanted to merge into one, they were not accepted by the then-Lutheran Church in America.
“This was during integration,” Graeber says.
So the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod accepted the new congregation.
Today, it is the only Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation in Rowan County. Its pastor is the Rev. Donald Anthony.
“It’s a rich history that people should be aware of,” Graeber says her congregation. “Young people just think about the here and now, but there was a struggle.”Items in the exhibit include a portrait of Bishop Varick, the first bishop of the AME Zion church, which was done about 50 years ago. There are silver communion trays from White Rock AME Zion and Jerusalem Missionary Baptist churches. There are also robes and paraments, and lots of old photographs from all of the churches.
There’s a replica of Soldiers Memorial made by Jerry Avery, which has been used to accept donations for capital campaigns.
There’s also an iron kettle in the exhibit. It was used as a symbol in secret night-time prayer meetings. Such kettles were later made for making soap, and today, Evans says many an iron kettle is used for fish fries.
The exhibit encompasses the museum’s front exhibit room and back foyer. In the foyer are eight large panels which chronicle the history of Soldiers Memorial.
Soldiers is Evans’ home congregation.
The exhibit, she says, is “to show the progress of the black church, and the importance it plays in history.”
“So many church members are grateful that we’re doing this exhibit,” Evans says. “As soon as this is over, they are going to display these artifacts at their churches.”
Attending Soldiers, she says, “is about loyalty to family. I was born into Soldiers. If you stayed in Salisbury, you continued to go to the church you were raised in.”
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Rowan Museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. For more information or to schedule group tours, call the museum at 704-633-5946.