North Carolina Newspapers

THE BETTER WE KNOW US GREENSBORO--The Interdenomina tional Theological Center of Atlanta, Georgia, is a ministrial seminary where many of today’s ministers get their formal training. It offers training to ministers not only in one religion but seven religions. I.T.C. is the only one of its kind and it is where this week’s “The Better We Know Us” personality received his formal training. Reverend Lloyd Green, Jr., product of the Johnson C. Smith Seminary (which is part of I.T.C.) and pastor of St. James United Presbyterian Church of Greens boro, after two and one-half years, is well known and respected in his position. Rev. Green is a native of Jenkinsville, South Carolina, where he attended public school and later came to North Carolina where he attended Johnson C. Smith and J.C. Smith Seminary. After his completion of J.C. Smith and being an ordained Presbyterian minister. Rev. Green came to Greensboro seeking a position in the community. He visited the St. James Presbyterian Church which had been without a minister for two years and felt the need to help. He also discovered the warmth and friendliness of the members and felt that this was where he should be. As a young man. Rev. Green was an African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) and was constantly told “you’re going to be a preacher someday”; but at that time. Rev. Green could no see this ocome into being. As a matter of fact, he first went to college in pursuit of a career as a lawyer, majoring in Political Science and History; but Rev. Green comments that there were three important influences in his life to convert his interest toward his ministerial career. The first of the three influences was found within himself; (1) “I felt the need to help people,” which was not the most influential reason; (2) “My uncle was an episcopalean and was a big influence on my life” and (3) “the chaplain at my college.” Two years without a pastor had been extremely rough for St. James; but since Rev. Green’s placement, there have been many programs instituted and though Rev. Green does not want to take too much credit, the church, as a whole, has become more of a close-knit family. Programs such as the Family Fun Night and the Mid-Week Prayer Service have been the cause of such closeness. The Presbyterian News Letter, “Good News”, was also instituted by Rev. Green and it features him in a section called “The Pastor’s Corner”. The 27-year old Rev. Green comments that his age has been a definite asset to his ministry. By being young, he must structure programs and sermons to everyone; the young, the middle-aged and the more mature members. He feels that his sermons cater to everyone and that everyone benefits. Rev. Green feels that the first two years in a minister’s career are the years of learning. He has gone through ups and downs just as anyone else in another job; but feels that “the good outweighs the bad.” Rev. Green comments, “Life is like climbing a mountain. One may climb and then slip back down; but it gives you more determination to go on. Once one reaches the top, he may feel that there is no need to go on. So 1 just keep on climbing.” Mrs. Bessie Green, his wife, has also been an inspiration to his ministry. She has been his sounding board, in that she listens to “his” problems. Not just hearing them but listening with concern. Along with pastoring St. James, Rev. Green stays busy with duties on the Red Cross Board, Youth Planning Committee for Greensboro, Community Health Services, Family Life Council and The United Campus Ministry Board at A&T State University. Recently Rev. Green • • • was proud to be appointed moderator of yadkin Presbytery during its mid-winter meeting at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Salisbury. In his “spare time” Rev. Green does not enjoy a regular hobby but enjoys watching television and listening to contemporary music. He also enjoys reading and feels it is a part of his job to keep up with the happenings of the world and community. The preparation of many of his sermons often comes from the context of his reading. Rev. Green is married to Mrs. Bessie Green of Rock Hill, South Carolina, who he met while in college. The two of them have one child, Conte Devon Green, who is two and one-half years old. They now reside at 1410 Rotherwood Road, Greensboro, N.C. Rev. Green extends help to everyone who needs it; which makes him a good person to know, for the better we know him, “The Better We Know Us”. A VIABLE, VALID REQUIREMENT RESPONDING TO BLACK NORTH CAROLINA THE TRIBUNAL AID VOLUME in, NO. 38 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1976 $5.00 PER YEAR 2fl CENTS PRESS RUN 8,500 MEMBER: North Carolina Black Publishers Association ■— North Carolina Press Association, Inc. ooeoeoooBcseoeoooeooooo'Oo BICENTENNIAL BLACK HISTORY “lost-Strayed-Or Stolen ” Extracted From THE NEGRO ALMANAC by Fay Ashe oooooQaoooooooocaoooooofto The 1976 Editions of THE TRIBUNAL AID will be dedicated to America’s bicentennial Celebration, with empliasis on contributions our Race has made in the maldng of America, from birth to the present. In 1976 there should not l>e a need to lift these contributions from isolated sources. Our past should be interwoven Into the fabric of our civilization, l>ecaase we are, except for the Indian, Americans oldest ethnic minority. We have helped male America what it was, and what it is, since the founding of Virginia. We have been a factor in many m^for issues in our history. There have been many misdeeds Fay Ashe, Black against us, yet we have been able to live through them and fight back. This is living proof of our history. Our role in the making of America is neither well known or correctly known. Many positive contributions have escaped historians and have not found their way into the pages of History Editor many history lM>oks. We will strive to give readers. Black and white, many little-known facts about our past and it is hoped that a proper perspective of our history will be of value to persons who may l>eiieve that as Black People we have an unworthy past; and hence, no strong claims-to all rights of other Americans. The Post-Reconstruction Years 1878-1905 Black history ia the Western Hemisphere most probably begins with the discovei^ of the New World by Oirlstopher Colnmbns in 1942. Blacks are known to have participated meaningfully in a nomtier of later explorations made by Europeans in various parts of the United States and Spanish America. Facts such as these at once fashion a new dimension for Black history within the mainstream of American history. Inasmuch as one of the primary purposes of this feature is to record some historical achievements of the Black, It becomes most important to offer the reader chronological accounts through which he can conveniently familiarize himself with the broad sweep of American Black history. The years covered here are 1492-1954. For every Black who abondoned the South, ten thousand remained, and withstood racism, and succeeded in many fields. For every Black lynched, a skilled worker, a business genius, an inventor or some other talented individual emerged. Cut off from political life and not faring well in the world of work, Blacks turned to their traditional center of hope, the church. Expectations of the Recon struction days faded. Blacks looked anew to the church as the agency of inspiration and uplift. The Civil War had freed the Negro church in the South from the controls established during slavery time. The White Preacher and observer were no longer on the scene. The war brought about separa tion of White and Negro churches in the South. Jim Crow” practices in secular former slaves who are compensated on a par with their white comrades-in- arms and promised their freedom after the war. In August, the battalion plunges into action against the Hessians, killing more than 1,000 of the enemy. The battalion later sees actioin under Colonel Green at Fonts Bride in New York. 1776: Delaware River Two Blacks - Prince Whipple and Oliver Crom well - cross the Delaware with Washingt( i en route to a surprise attack of the British and their Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey. 1778: Rhode Island Formation of a Black battalion consisting of 300 1779: NEW YORK Alexander Hamilton endorses the plan of South Carolina’s Henry Laurens to use slaves as soldiers. "I have not the least doubt that the Negroes will make very excellent soldiers," says Hamilton, "...for their natural faculties are as good as ours." Apart from the biological argument, Hamilton alerts the Continental Congress to the fact that the enemy will probably make use of Blacks if the Americans fail to capitalize on the opportunity. In Hamilton’s words: "...the best way to counteract the temtations they will hold out, will be to offer them ourselves." 1780: CHARLES CITY COUNTY, VIRGINIA Birth of Black Baptist missionary Lott Carey who purchases his freedom in 1813, becomes a preacher at the First Baptist Church in Richmond and, in 1819, begins service with the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. Carey later organizes and pastors the First Baptist Church of Liberia. In 1822, The American Colonization Society sponsors his trip to Liberia with 28 colonists, among the founders of the state. Carey dies defending the colony in 1828. 1782: VIRGINIA Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia" exhibits a curious mixture of perceptive understanding and alarming naivete with the regard to the Black. On the one hand, Jefferson sees that "the whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions"; on the other, he invents the fantasy that “their griefs are transient." 1783: SARATOGA, NEW YORK The famed "Black Regiment" is deactivated at the close of the Revolutionary War. Historical Landmarks I I Of Black America | Extracted From { THE NEGRO ALMANAC | by Fay Ashe | u. : —I No more substantial testimony to the role of the Black in the growth and development of America can be found than the numerous historical landmarks in various regions of the country which are associated with Black Americana. Many of these-like the Alamo and Bunker Hill-are not conventionally known as sites involving chapters of Negro historv. ARIZONA, San Carlos: "San Carlos Indiana Reservation” The Ninth and Tenth Calvary, Black regiments formed after the Civil War, were often sent out to combat the Cheyenne and Apache Indians in the American Southwest. The Indians called them “Buffalo Soldiers"; their own white officers referred to them as "The Brunettes’’. Whatever their designation, however, they were considered to be among the best troops in the area. The first Black officer assigned to the Tenth was Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper who, likewise, was the first Black to graduate from West Point. Blacks were among the troops under General Crook’s command at the time of the surrender of the famed Apache chief Geronimo in 1876. Today, the tribal council of the San Carlos Apaches meets regularly on the site where the reservation of the Warm Spring Apaches was once found. ARIZONA, Springerville; "Fort Huachuca" Fort Huachuca quartered troops of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry during the Indian Wars. Elements of the 10th were stationed here in the first decade of the 20th century. During World War II, the men of the all Black 92nd Division trained here before being sent overseas to Africa and Europe. BIBLIOGRAPHY *** America New York: Pitt- Drotning, Phillip T. A man Publishing Corpora- Guide to Negro History in tion 1967 America New' York: Dou- pioski, Harry A. Phe bleday and Company, 1968 Kaiser, Ernest The Negro Katz, William Loren Alamanac New York: Bel- Eyewitness: The Negro in luether Company life made it next to impossible for the White Southerner to welcome Negroes into their church es. A few White churches were willing to retain their Black membership on the condition that Black mem bers would continue to sit in gallaries formerly re served for Slaves, and not take part in the church’s social or business affairs. Blacks were unwilling to accept these conditions, as a consequence, Southern Protestanism divided into all-white and all-black denominations. In 1866 Black Baptist Congregations in the South Atlantic States of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida organized an Assoc iation of their own; this was followed fourteen years later by a State wide Convention of Negro Bap tist Churches. By 1880 Black and White Baptists in the South were going their separate ways. Other denominations were experiencing similar separations. Late in 1870 the COLORED METHO DIST CHURCH IN AMER ICA was organized, an offshoot of the METHO DIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH, After the Civil War Negro Methodism was further strengthened by the com ing of the AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH and the AFRI CAN METHODIST EPIS COPAL ZION CHURCH. Like the Methodist, NEGRO PRESBYTERIANS in the South began to form their own churches, over two-thirds of them taking this step by 1870. In 1898 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States trans ferred its Negro units to a newly organized AFRO- AMERICAN PRESBYTER IAN CHURCH. This separation even touched the Episcopalians, whose Black membership was small. After the Civil War this denomination continued to hold special services known as “COL ORED SUNDAY SCHOOL”. This practice did not win Negro converts. This “COLORED SUNDAY SCHOOL” caused Blacks to join Negro Episcopalian Congregations or become Methodist or Baptist. The Catholics were the only denomination to escape the challenge of the color line, largely because of their late start in Black work. Their first organized effort did not begin until 1871, with the arrival of five Josephite Fathers in Baltimore. Their first Black Priest was ordained in 1893. The Black Clergyman was a natural leader because his support came from the mass of people; he was in a position to speak more frankly on their behalf than a Black Leader whose job required that he have good will of the White community. The role of the Black Clergyman was not confined to pulpit preach ing and spiritual leader ship. He was the counselor of the unwise, the friend of the unfortunate, and social welfare organizer. The role of the Black church and its pastor did not stop with Sunday service. The Black church was a highly socialized one, performing many func tions. The church served as a community center, where one could find relaxation and recreation. It was a welfare agency, dispensing help to the sicker and poorer members. It was a training school in self- government, in the hand ling of money and the management of business. The church was the Black man’s very own, giving him the opportunity to make decisions for himself. A patron of schools, the Black church performed one of its greater services. Determined to give its young people a CHRIST IAN EDUCATION and better training for its future clergymen, the Black church expanded their school-founding efforts. By 1900, Black Baptists were supporting eighty elemen tary and high schools. In existence, too, at that date were eighteen Baptist institutions of college or semicollege rank for Blacks, all located in the South. Major financial support of these schools as well as control, rested in the hands of the White Baptist in the North, who worked through the AMER ICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY. The Black denominations of the Methodist church were busy too; the A.M.E.’s established six colleges between 1870 and 1886. The C.M.E.’s estab lished four colleges be tween 1878 and 1902, and the ZION METHODIST founded LIVINGSTON COLLEGE in 1879. These denominations received support from White friends, but the major support from White Metho dist went to schools founded by the FREED- MEN’S AID SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST CHURCH, an auxiliary of the Methodist Episcopal Church North. By 1878 the FREEDMAN’S AID SOC IETY had founded five colleges, two theological seminaries, and two medi cal schools. The control of these schools was vested in those who had put up the money. Other northern denomi nations were not idle. The Presbyterians founded ASHNUM INSTITUTE (lat er LINCOLN UNIVERSITY) in Pennsylvania in 1854. In 1867, BIDDLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE (later JOHN SON C. SMITH UNIVER SITY). SCOTIA SEMI NARY in 1870, and KNOXVILLE COLLEGE two years later. The Congregationalist were few in number, but active. Operating through their agency, the AMERI CAN MISSIONARY ASSO CIATION, The Congrega- tionalists founded seven colleges for Blacks from See Page 4 Tuskegee Institute s principal, Booker T. Washington (center), poses with hfs faculty In 1897. I! 1776 Honoring America s Bicentennial 1976