MOUNT VERNON — As February’s Black History Month began, members of Faith Apostolic Church got together to talk about being African-American in Knox County.
“In the early 1900s, there were 500 blacks in the city,” said the Rev. Eddie Massey. “Mount Vernon was a progressive city. At the last count four years ago, there were 123 blacks.”
He noted three black church congregations: The African Methodist Episcopal Church on West Ohio Avenue, founded in 1878, now defunct; Mount Calvary Baptist Church on South Mulberry Street, founded in 1915, now defunct; and Faith Apostolic on West High Street, founded in 1948.
Judy (Myers) Hill and her sister, Joyce (Myers) Hogan, grew up on a farm in Amity. Hogan remembers a black youth center on Ohio Avenue in Mount Vernon, where young people met.
“But there weren’t a lot of things to do,” she said.
Her husband, John Hogan, grew up in Mount Vernon.
“There were the black Elks [Kokosing Elks Lodge No. 1085]. There weren’t really any [black] bars,” he recalled. “There was one night at the skating rink when we could skate. But the most constant thing was the apostolic church.”
Even in church, however, there was racism, he said. Sometime in the 1950s — the memory is vivid, although the date is hazy — the apostolic church on West Chestnut Street, where blacks and whites worshipped together — came to the decision to expel the black members.
John Hogan, who was about 6 years old then, said the news was announced to the congregation before Sunday services began. Blacks were asked to leave immediately.
“We were in church that morning, in our regular place, and I can remember my Aunt Edna and my mother. I remember us standing and leaving the church that day. We all had tears in our eyes. At that time, racism wasn’t blatant in Mount Vernon, but it was alive and well.”
Ruth (Hogan) Akers remembers the tears pouring down her mother’s cheeks.
“Oh, they cried and cried,” she said.
“It was an organizational thing,” Hill said. “The church just decided that blacks were no longer welcome.”
“I think some of the whites were sad. Some of them left the church, too,” said Joyce.
“Splits make new churches,” said Massey, who lives in Mansfield and has co-pastored Faith Apostolic for 10 years with his wife, Dr. Jean S. Massey. “Our purpose is to bring everybody back together.”
The ousted church members began to meet in homes, and eventually formed Faith Apostolic, renting local buildings for services. Their first owned building was near the viaduct, approximately where Wendy’s stands now.
The church members reminisced about the black community of the past. They remember the Snowden minstrel family — they chuckle and shake their heads when they discuss that the Snowdens most likely wrote “Dixie,” although Daniel Decatur Emmett got credit for it — the Brooks family, the Proffit family. They spoke of the Myers-Hamilton family reunion that has been held on the last Saturday in July for more than 130 years, and the Simmons-Newsome reunion that has taken place for more than 100 years. They remembered the formation of Mount Vernon’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and that it met at First Congregational Church.
“White men stood up in the NAACP meetings and said, ‘There’s a Klan in Mount Vernon, so it don’t matter what you do,’” said John.
Some years ago, recalls Hill, pickup trucks flying Confederate flags drove around and around Public Square for weeks on end, sending a message of intimidation and hate to local blacks.
“It was scary to be out at night then,” said Hill.
They remember Mount Vernon High School senior Mary Hogan, seated on the stage with the rest of her class at their graduation ceremony, not being permitted to walk the stage to receive her diploma. She was the only black member of the class.
“They mailed her diploma,” said Joyce, now Mary’s sister-in-law.
“A few years ago,” said Jean Massey, “we were planning a church Christmas party. I’d made reservations at the [former] Green Leaf. When we got there, they said we didn’t have reservations. It was a mixed congregation but it was so apparent that this was a form of racism.”
The church members also recall the success of Knox County African-Americans, many of whom entered the medical and education fields, founded businesses and played on the Mount Vernon Giants black baseball team. They noted that there was never a “black neighborhood” in Mount Vernon, that blacks lived wherever they wanted and most owned their homes.
Candace Alexander of Apple Valley is new to the area.
“We came here to build a home,” she said. “My experience has generally been good. While we were building, we had people leave us in the middle of a project because it was ‘coon season,’ things like that. The general attitude [of whites], to me as a newcomer, is ‘just ignore them.’”
“It’s been a changing city,” said Eddie Massey about Mount Vernon. “We have a pretty good relationship with the mayor and the city. You’re going to have pockets of good and bad experiences. We have a good relationship with the white apostolic churches.
“People are more enlightened now. It’s a global economy. You’re no longer dealing in the local area alone. Back then, [racists] could stop the economy. It makes the country a little more open now. I see that blacks are coming back into the city. Mount Vernon is progressing along.”
“The past is important,” said Jean, “because it allows you to see where you’re going. Jesus came to tell us that all men are equal and all men should be free. It’s about love, unity, harmony. Everyone has a story to tell.”
“Black History Month is important because we are somebody,” said Joyce Hogan. “It’s important because we’re not going to go away. Civilization started in Africa ... I don’t know why people are afraid of us. We are people, too.”
“In order to heal something,” said Alexander, “you must reveal it in order to heal it. Black History Month isn’t just for black people. It’s for all people. Until those things [racism] are actually confronted, they will never be healed. It just keeps scabbing over and scabbing over.”
