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2010-02-01 issue:

What's next for African-American Mennonites?

News Analysis

by Glen Alexander Guyton, Mennonite Church USA minister for intercultural relations, Executive Leadership

Print Article

The history of African-Americans is as old as the history of our country. But it was not until 1925, when Harvard-trained Carter G. Woodson conceived and announced Negro History Week, that the importance of African-American contributions gained attention. The first celebration was held in February 1926. Fifty years later, as part of the nation's bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Negro History Week became Black History Month. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history." 

As our nation celebrates African-American History month, it is only fitting that we celebrate the many accomplishments of African-Americans in the North American Mennonite church. Thankfully, Mennonite congregations in the United States were a bit ahead of the times in regard to race relations. 


A Mennonite Sunday school class in the Pruitt Homes neighborhood of St Louis. Pruitt Homes was on a 57-acre site. It eventually failed, and the 33-building, 2,870 apartment, Pruitt-Igoe public housing project, completed in 1954, was razed completely in 1976. LeRoy Bechler. Photograph Collection, Mennonite Church USA Archives—Goshen.

African-Americans have had an important role in the Mennonite church. As we reflect on the accomplishments of the past, what lessons can we glean, as a church, that will successfully propel us into the future?

Missional: According to The Black Mennonite Church in North America by LeRoy Bechler, Welsh Mountain Industrial Mission near New Holland, Pa., was the first Mennonite “church” organized for the African-American community. The Industrial Mission, started in 1898, was organized to fight the poverty and racism faced by African-American workers settling in the New Holland area. African-American parishioners were given work opportunities and were paid in provisions. The Anglo Mennonites saw a need and an opportunity to share the gospel. Most if not all the 13 original African-American Mennonite congregations began as mission projects. 

Led primarily by Anglos, these missions provided resources, employment and hosted Sunday school classes for African-Americans. Programs for children were also a large part of these efforts. 

In his manuscript "Daily Demonstrators: The Civil Rights Movement in Mennonite Homes and Sanctuaries," Tobin Miller Shearer discusses the Fresh Air Program that again primarily targeted African-American children. Not only did African-Americans become a part of the Mennonite church through houses of worship but via homes and open hearts as well.

It is clear that the early Anglo church workers of the Mennonite church in North America had a missional heart. A truly missional church sees its community not as it is but as God desires it to be. Then the church draws upon the gifts and talents of its members and the community to bring that vision to fruition. Although limited by the racism and socially acceptable norms of their time, people made efforts to deliver the gospel to the African-American community "by giving them a better condition spiritually by establishing Sunday schools and church services among them," as Bechler writes.

Created for but not created by: While well-intentioned, some of these missions were created to answer the question, What shall we do with the Negro?

When this question was posed in the early 1930s to Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, they decided it was better to create a separate mission for blacks than go against the social norms and allow race mixing (this would later change with the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement). 

The result was South Christian Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa. Bechler lists the 13 original African-American Mennonite churches and the years they were founded:
• Welsh Mountain, Lancaster (Pa.) County, 1898
• South Christian Street Mennonite Church (now Crossroads), Lancaster, Pa., 1933
• Diamond Street Mennonite Church, Philadelphia, 1935
• Broad Street Mennonite Mission, Harrisonburg Va., 1935
• Andrews Bridge, Christiana, Pa., 1938
• Buttonwood Mennonite Fellowship, Reading, Pa., 1938
• Thirty-Fifth Street Mennonite Mission, Los Angeles, 1940
• Bethel Mennonite Church, Chicago, 1944
• Dearborn Street Mission, Chicago, 1945
• Rockview Mennonite Church, Youngstown, Ohio, 1947
• Lee Heights Community Church, Cleveland, 1948
• Rehoboth Mennonite Church, St. Anne, Ill., 1949
• Ninth Street Mennonite Church, Saginaw, Mich., 1949

Some of these congregations are no longer in existence; some are not now members of Mennonite Church USA. Over time, some of these early missions collapsed. Some succeeded, but the seeds of integration had been planted.


James and Rowena Lark barbecue ribs in 1949 with voluntary service workers Mary Alice Shaum and Alta Byler at Camp Rehoboth. The Larks purchased 10 acres of land near Hopkins Park, Ill., for a camp earlier that year. The first Sunday school began Nov. 13 and later became Rehoboth Mennonite Church. LeRoy Bechler Photograph Collection, Mennonite Church USA Archives—Goshen.

Still it would take some time before African-American leaders came into their own.

While the first mission was launched in 1898, it was not until 1945, with the ordination of James Lark, that African-American Mennonites became recognized as true leaders in the church. James Lark eventually was appointed bishop in 1954.

Shearer writes that during the civil rights era, African-American women such as Rowena Lark and Nettie Taylor commanded authority during interracial gatherings. Over the next 30 years, black pastoral leadership steadily increased in the church. According to Shearer, in the 1980s, over half the black and integrated congregations were led by black pastors. In spite of growing African-American leadership, many of the African-American churches were still financially dependent on the Anglo church. The African-American Mennonite church responded with the creation of the Black Caucus of the Mennonite Church (MC) in 1982. In 1986, Leslie Francisco III, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Va., became the second black bishop in the history of the Mennonites in North America and eventually the president of the African-American Mennonite Association, successor to the Black Caucus of the Mennonite Church. AAMA and its predecessor were created to give voice to the African-American constituency of the Mennonite Church and provide training and support to the dispersed African-American congregations within Mennonite Church USA.

Bishop Leslie Francisco III is currently president of the African-American Mennonite Association. Photo provided.

What's next? What became of the Welsh Mountain Mission? According to Richard Buckwalter, a bishop in Lancaster Mennonite Conference, the Welsh Mountain Mennonite Church held its final service on May 15, 2005. Welsh Mountain experienced dramatic change in recent decades. The poor, rural African-American community migrated to the nearby small cities and towns for greater economic opportunity while simultaneously the upper-middle-class Anglos from the nearby communities discovered the natural beauty of the Welsh Mountain area, purchased the real estate and gradually replaced the substandard housing with luxurious new homes. The new residents of this community were not attracted to a small Mennonite church on the Welsh Mountain. The ministry of the Welsh Mountain Home, a residence for elderly folks with limited financial resources, continues at this location. Mountain Spring Mennonite Church has begun meeting in the chapel at this location. This congregation is largely traditional Mennonite families who include ministry to the residents of the Welsh Mountain Home as a part of their mission.

Today there are many African-American and integrated congregations in Mennonite Church USA. Many of these congregations have gifted African-American leaders. Many of the churches are strong spiritually, financially and in membership. These African-American and integrated congregations are planting churches, involved in their communities and growing leaders.

As an African-American, I am thankful for the early church pioneers, from the first African-American leaders to the Anglo brothers and sisters of Lancaster Conference who were some of the first in the Mennonite Church to welcome African-American congregants. 

But what is next for African-American Mennonites? Race relations in the United States have changed dramatically since the 1800s. The country has an African-American president, and our church has many strong African-American leaders, from congregations to conferences to Executive Leadership. It is now their burden to ensure that African-Americans remain an integral part Mennonite Church USA, that the success of the past is not allowed to stagnate.

How does the church continue to be missional and move forward in its ministry to all people? Like the Welsh Mountain Industrial Mission, the ebb and flow of time and circumstance can change our focus. Our institutions can become "unattractive" and irrelevant if our vision and mission are not clear. 

Even though race relations have changed  dramatically, race is still an issue in our country and our church. To remain relevant to all God's people—whether, African-American, Anglo, Asian, Native or Swiss-German—we must seek to understand our changing community and the people who are a part of it.

Shearer reports that in a conversation with a white Mennonite leader in 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. asked, "Where have you Mennonites been?" Today I want to ask, Where are we Mennonites going?

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