Preserving a culture: Local black church celebrates history month

Published 11:23 am Thursday, February 11, 2010

For one of Renton’s oldest black churches, Black History Month is about the preservation of a culture.

“If we don’t celebrate it, if we don’t repeat it, then it gets lost,” said Deborah Robinson, an usher at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Baptist Church.

The church, celebrating its 33-year anniversary, is taking the month to recognize key black figures and to retell a story of struggle.

“We celebrate Black History Month to honor the heroes and sheroes on whose shoulders we stand,” said pastor Herbert Carey, adding, “those who laid the foundation for where we are today, those who sacrificed themselves on the picket lines.”

Although the month is special, the church discusses black history every week, said Shirley Harris, a church reverend. “We celebrate as a people who we are every day.”

The church’s culture shined brightly through a mid-service meet and greet.

The choir poured down from the stage and through church pews. Women greeted visitors with wide hugs and bright smiles, although they were perfect strangers.

“People who come from other cultures are perhaps not as outwardly expressive,” Carey said. “Our culture, the black culture, is a musical culture.”

Carey preached with rhyme and verse, bringing some members of the congregation to tears.

The church’s worship style comes from its culture.

“There is no right and wrong in a particular style of worship,” Carey said. “Singing, praying, gospel music, expressions, feeling, that is all a part of the worship.”

One Sunday, members dressed in traditional African clothing as a reminder that black history is rooted in more than slavery, Robinson said.

“We kind of go back to our roots,” said member Clarene Montgomery.

The celebration is also an opportunity to educate black youth about their history. Often times, the TV is only other place they learn about black history, Robinson said.

“You have to teach the children. The traditions have to be passed on,” Carey said.

Standing behind a podium, Robinson explained Black History Month and the man who started it as a history week.

“This is the only race that has its own history month,” she said, adding that it was an honor.

A short skit then previewed an upcoming Feb. 21 play on the Jim Crow laws.

“If you don’t tell the story, people won’t remember the story,” Carey said. “Plays, written literature, things on it allow the young people, the children, to remember history.”

A signup sheet in the church foyer promises fried chicken and collard greens at a potluck before the play. The congregation was also invited to wear “down-home” clothes.

MLK Baptist started as a neighborhood Bible study organized by founder Margie Williams.

“She went from door to door neighborhood to neighborhood encouraging people to come to her Bible study on Sunday,” Carey said.

At the time the closest black Baptist church was in Seattle, a long trip for Sunday worship.

“We’ve been through quite a few struggles, but we still have a long way to go,” said 22-year member Laverne Peterson.