The emphasis of Black History began in America in 1926, and can be attributed to a man by the name of Dr. Carter G. Woodson.   Born to parents who were former slaves, he spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in high school at age twenty. He graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. Although blacks were very involved in this country as far back as colonial times, Dr. Woodson was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population—and when blacks did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time.

Dr. Woodson began to rectify the situation by starting an association that helped to write black Americans into our nation’s history. He chose the second week in February because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black population in this country, Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.

This is also a good month to celebrate the heritage of African Americans in the Church of God. Church of God Historian, Merle Strege, writes the following in the February/March issue of  ONEvoice! Magazine:

“A woman named Jane Williams may have been the very first African American who did affiliate with the Church of God. Before 1886, Williams had been preaching and teaching the cause of holiness and unity and by 1888 had gathered a congregation in Charleston, South Carolina. Williams was the first person, black or white, to preach the message of the Church of God in Charleston. From these beginnings, the work expanded among African Americans.”

Dr. Strege continues in the article emphasizing that “a church segregated by race did not conform to the early Church of God’s vision of the people of God. As D.S. Warner

had written, ‘Oh brethren, how this perfect love unites us all in Jesus.’ In this view, perfect love, a synonym for the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, is the power that unifies the church. It does not make us uniform, but it does work unity.”

I am privileged to pastor a congregation that has racial diversity. It is a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst and to the kind of love that Paul writes about in Galatians 3: 28… “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

As we celebrate Black History Month, may we continue to pray for racial harmony in our city, state and country and may racial prejudice become “history” as we strive to live as God has called us to live…as one.

With Love,

Pastor Bruce