Religion

Lane Street Project: the Reconsecration of Vick Cemetery, last one.

Chris Facey has captured so much of the beauty of Lane Street Project’s work that it’s only fitting that I wrap up the celebration with his photographs.

The esteemed clergy.

Rev. H. Maurice Barnes, Calvary and White Rock Presbyterian Churches.

Rev. Daniel Pinell, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church and La Iglesia de la Guadalupana.

Rev. Debbie Hayes, Rountree Missionary Baptist Church.

Mayor Carlton Stevens.

Hon. George K. Butterfield Jr. (retired).

Mrs. Henrietta Hines McIntosh.

Lisa Y. Henderson.

Bishop Ernestine McGee, Faith Temple United Holy Church, and Sister Faye Winstead.

Rev. Tim Davis, Crossroad Street Ministry.

Rev. A. Kim Reives.

Rev. Lindsey Ardrey, Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, Diocesan Reparations and Restitution Ministry.

Pastor Carnela R. Hill, Be Restored Church.

Rev. Christopher Wyckoff, Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist Church.

Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid.

R. Briggs Sherwood, Lane Street Project Senior Force.

The saints gathered, the clouds rolled back, the sun shone, Vick Cemetery is reclaimed.

Lane Street Project: the Reconsecration of Vick Cemetery, part 1.

I am so FULL. I don’t even know where to start. Just gon and get ready to be sick of me, because this is going to go post after post.

This first post is thanks and acknowledgment.

To Rev. H. Maurice Barnes and Rev. Carlton Best, who answered my call for Reconsecration with a full-throated “yes!,” planned the order of service and called in the faith community to carry out our vision for this day;

To Rev. Debbie Hayes, who hosted planning meetings at Rountree Missionary Baptist Church;

To Bishop Ernestine McGee of Faith Temple United Holy Church for use of the bus that ferried guests from street parking around the corner to the site of the ceremony;

To the ecumenical team of Rev. A. Kim Reives (who led the prayers of Reconsecration), Rev. Dr. Christopher Wyckoff (who gave the benediction), Rev. Jose Daniel Pinell (who delivered Scripture), Rev. Torase L. Barnes, Rev. Carnela R. Hill, Rev. Lindsey Ardrey, Rev. Tim Davis, Rev. Edwin Ferguson, and others whose names I did not catch, who walked the grounds, anointing the earth during Reconsecration;

To Mayor Carlton L. Stevens, who arranged for support from the Parks and Recreation Department, Wilson Police Department, Wilson Energy, and other city employees;

To the Honorable G.K. Butterfield Jr., retired member of Congress, whose incisive remarks at today’s ceremony were a call to action for the City’s leaders;

To Sister Faye Winstead, who stepped in at the very last moment to lead us in song (“We Will Work Till Jesus Comes”);

To City Councilmembers Derrick D. Creech, Gillettia Morgan, Rev. Michael S. Bell, and James Johnson and County Commissioner JoAnne Daniels for their attendance and attention;

To Henrietta Hines McIntosh, for the gift of her memories;

To Jen Kehrer of Scarborough House Resort, who arranged for Odd Fellows Cemetery to be cut back yesterday and who showed up early to help hand out programs and buttons;

To Lane Street Project’s everyday volunteers, who are always there when needed;

To the Wilson Times, for recognizing the importance of Vick Cemetery and affording close coverage of our fight;

To each of you in attendance at this beautiful ceremony, in body or spirit;

And to the ancestors — may you be pleased with our work.

Mark your calendars.

I’ve got a busy week coming up, and I hope to see some of you here or there.

Thursday evening, August 3, I’ll be in Greenville, North Carolina, at East Carolina Village and Farm Museum, delivering a talk on identifying documents to advance research on enslaved ancestors.

Friday morning — well, I can’t tell you about that right now, but stay tuned.

Saturday morning, August 5, at 10:00 A.M., in partnership with faith leaders from across the city of Wilson, Lane Street Project has organized a reconsecration of Vick Cemetery. Thank God we don’t need a vote of city council to do spiritual work. This will be an ecumenical service — we recognize that we don’t know the specific faith journeys of all who are buried in Vick. Please come. Bring your prayers, your salat, your affirmations, your good vibes as we reclaim Vick Cemetery as a sacred space.

Finally, Saturday evening, I’ll join the Freeman-Hagans Family Reunion to deliver a talk at their reunion dinner. (This is a private event, of course.) This will be my first time addressing a family group other than my own, so I’m pretty excited!

Lane Street Project: calling all faith leaders.

Take the first step with us on the journey to restoring Vick Cemetery to  recognition in the community as a sacred space.

A team of faith leaders is working with Lane Street Project for the Reconsecration of Vick Cemetery. Though we cannot touch every blade of grass in Vick, we want to cover as much of its ground as we can. For this, we need more faith leaders — of every denomination, creed, or color — to walk this walk with us. Your role will be simple, but powerful.

A great moral wrong has been done in the neglect of Vick Cemetery and the stripping of its graves of all identifying markers. Faith leaders, if you believe in dignity after death and the sanctity of human remains, please join other men and women of the cloth in anointing the sacred ground of Vick Cemetery. All, please encourage your pastor, your imam, your rabbi to participate. And please come on the morning of August 5 to honor our mothers and fathers and to bear witness.

For more information, please contact Lisa Y. Henderson at lanestreetproject@gmail.com no later than July 27. Thank you.

High school seniors hear Rev. Sommerville.

Wilson Daily Times, 25 May 1936.

Wilson Colored High School (whose name was soon to change to C.H. Darden High School) invited Rev. W.C. Sommerville to deliver a baccalaureate sermon to the Class of 1936. Rev. Sommerville’s sermon, “The Battle of Life,” drew from I Timothy 6:12. Virginia State College president Dr. John M. Gandy addressed the commencement address.