Dear Friend: I saw your email on the AlPike Website, and it flashed to my memory a site that referenced African American members of a church congregation in the early days of Alabama. It referenced a pleasant association between the Black and the White membership in the church. When I referenced the difficulty in tracing data, I decided I should send the site as well as a quote from the church records of the Pilgrim's Rest Church, Covington, Alabama. For those Pike researchers, please excuse my sending a Covington Site to this post. Bobbie Newham Pilgrim's Rest Church and Race Relations--Covington County, Alabama <A HREF="http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ifetch2?/u1/data/al+index+826130766 75+F"> http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ifetch2?/u1/data/al+index+82613076675+F </A> A quote from the site is as follows: (Also posted to this site are the names of the members of the congregation--including the Black population). ".....One of the surprising facts in the records of Pilgrim's Rest Church is the relationship of blacks and whites. It is often said that the most segregated period of American life, even in the year 2000, is the Sunday worship hour of Protestant churches. That statement was not true of the congregation of the Pilgrim's Rest Church. From its earliest days, the Pilgrim's Rest membership consisted of both white and black congregants. Admittedly, black members were a minority within the congregation. Black membership totaled no more than eight or nine at any given time, but this was a sizable portion of total membership that rarely, if ever, exceeded twenty-five. Oddly, black membership increased in the decade following the Civil War. Even during slavery, black members were referred to respectfully in the minutes. For example, black members joined the church in the same way white members joined; they professed their faith and expressed an experience of grace that convinced the congregation of their election. For example, in October 1860, the hurch received by experience and baptism "Sarah, a colored sister belonging to Brother J. A. \Taylor." 1861, the church received "a colored brother belonging to Mr. Spicer (Lewis) and "resolved to write for a letter of dismission for him." When the church at which Lewis was formerly a member failed to send a letter, the congregation voted Lewis into full membership "on declaration of faith," a term that meant the church accepted his word that he had been baptized into the membership of another church of the same faith and order and that he had left that church in good standing. Unfortunately, the church was later unwilling to recognize Lewis's "gift" for preaching and ultimately excluded him for "heterodoxy." It is instructive that the term "slave" is never used in the church minutes. Instead, the black members before emancipation are consistently referred to as "servants" and "colored brothers and sisters." Although the record does not specifically say so, this researcher assumes that as full members of the church, black members had the same rights as white members, including the right to vote and participate in matters of conference business. Admittedly, no black member was ever voted to office or authorized to represent the church at associational or district meetings. One incident recorded in the minute for the conference of June 1882 demonstrates that Pilgrim's Rest Church not only retained black members at that point, but that the church would not tolerate mistreatment of those members. In that conference the church charged "Bro. Samuel Bowers with refusing to fellowship colored members of the church" and voted to exclude him from membership. Several black members are clearly identified by name and race ("colored") in the lists of church members. These include: Sarah Taylor, Lewis Spicer, Bryant Stewart, Henrietta Bryan, Samson Brooks, Milla Brooks, Lucy Brooks, and George Clark. One other name has been marked through; it seems to read C--- Bryan. Whether the name was marked through because of a clerical error or for some other reason cannot be determined. Cumulative Roll of Church Members, 1893: ....... There are at least three cumulative rolls of church members in the records. The most complete, legible, and accurate roll was made by Morgan D. Jones in 1893. He lists the membership in the chronological order of their joining the church. Here is the list:....... (see the site siting above for full reference).