This week on The Local Take, we join forces with PBS to support the premiere of their documentary The Black Church. I reached out to Wheat Street Baptist Church, which began in 1869. This church was led by the late Rev. Dr. Williams Holmes Borders, Sr.. I speak with his daughter Rev. Dr. Juel Borders-Benson, who grew up in the historic Wheat Street Baptist Church.
I ask her about her relationship with the church, she speaks about her family moving to Atlanta from Evanston, IL in 1937.
She speaks about the church being a place where planning and strategy was mapped out. She mentions that our strongest civic leaders were born in The Black Church and that the church was a refuge for those that wanted to be free.
She spoke about a documentary on the church that chronicled the church's life between 1937 and 1982. I ask her about the building and the HUD grant that the church received in 1972. She shares that while other churches were able to duplicate portions of what Wheat Street Baptist was able to do, she explains that it was a very complicated partnership.
There were civic organizations, political leaders, business leaders, and more aligned for Wheat Street to receive federal funding for Wheat Street Gardens and the Wheat Street Towers. She speaks to the other church leaders who duplicated portions of what Wheat Street was able to do. She talked about the congregation's loyalty to support the pastor and the church in this progressive endeavor.
Rev. Dr. Juel P. Borders-Benson, a history maker on her own, is currently an associated pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church.
For more information Wheat Street Baptist Church