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Many C.M.E.s arrived in Detroit by bus and train
during the years of WWI. The work they found gave them pride and a sense
of being empowered. Yet, what was missing was the institution of hope
and comfort, which was part of their family life in the south. They
missed the church from down home, a means of spiritual uplift. Even
though other black churches were here in the community, it was not their
church.
Out of this need, the C.M.E. Church came to Detroit. Like their
forbearers in 1870, desiring a church of which reflected "ideas and
notions they owned" W. D. Coar, Rev. O. L. Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs. J. W.
Harper, Mrs. Nance, Mrs. Margaret Keith, Mr. O. D. Hall, Mr. O. E.
Lewis, Rev. Nate Manning, Mrs. Selena Draper, Mrs. Estella Foreman met
initially in June of 1917. They established a mission called St. John
C.M.E. Church. In July of 1917, they met with Bishop Randall A. Carter
and were formally organized. Rev. Mitchell was appointed pastor and
Presiding Elder and the C.M.E. Church in Detroit was started.
The C.M.E. Church represented for black people more than just religious
services. The larger context that was signified was: 1. A community of
affirmation and self worth in this new world; 2. It was a slice of home,
which placed them in contact with other people who came from down home,
sometimes bringing messages from family members; 3, This was the one
area where people could be leaders, directors and important; 4. The
church was theirs.
From 1917 to 1919, St. John was the only outpost of the C.M.E. church in
Detroit. Since jobs and housing shortages forced many blacks to live
great distances away from the where St. John was located, the Fews
congregation was started in the downriver community of River Rouge,
Michigan. Public transportation was not the best means of going to
worship. Many people preferred being part of a worshipping community in
their neighborhood.
In 1922 and 1923, several congregations were started. The Grace
Church was formed in 1922 from St. John Church on the East Side of the
city. In 1923, the Central and the Carter Metropolitan
churches were part of the black population shift to the west. Womack
Temple was opened this same year in Inkster, the city where Henry
Ford housed black workers from the Rouge Plant.
Just northeast of Detroit, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, there was
significant black population beginning to form. As a result, a C.M.E.
congregation, though for a time, sharing a common facility with a black
Baptist church, officially formed in 1922 as Turner Chapel
Church.
The next significant growth of the C.M.E. Church in this region took
place in post World War II and post Korean conflict. The Allen Temple
founded in 1959. The Coggins Church also started in that year in
the former structure of the St. John Church, which became available as
they moved to the present site on Woodward. This made St. John the first
black church on this major street. On the farm, which belonged to boxing
champion Joe Louis in Romulus, Michigan, the Greater Bethany
Church was founded in 1957. The Rosebrough Chapel Church in
northwest Detroit was also founded at this time.
As the population of blacks continued to spread in the Detroit
Metropolitan area, so did the C.M.E. Church. Bunton Metropolitan
Church, an off shoot of St. John, was formed in 1974 in northwest
Detroit. In western Wayne County, members of the Fews Church started a
congregation in Belleville/Sumpter Township in 1975. This church came to
be known as the Isom Memorial Church. Two churches started in
1977 on the East Side of Detroit, Missionary Temple and Peace.
From its start in the WWI and postwar years, to the period after the
Korean conflict, the 70's, 80's and 90's, the C.M.E. Church has been
there for spiritual nurture, fellowship and as a Christian witness to
the communities where they were planted. There are still many challenges
as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church finds itself in the 21st
century. We must make real the hopes and dreams of those who founded the
C.M.E. Church and schools to transform the world where we live.
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