News — Mississippi

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church established 1864 was the first African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E. church) in the state of Mississippi. It was also the site for T.W. Stringer Grand Lodge of Freemasonry for the State of Mississippi headquartered in Vicksburg and founded by Rev. T.W. Stringer in 1867. The church is located at 805 Monroe Street in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the corner of Monroe and First East streets. While the building that houses the church was built in 1828, a demolition took place in 1912 to build the present building. The most famous of the church’s early pastors was Rev. Hiram Revels who on February 25, 1870 took the oath of office to become the first Black U.S. Senator in the history of the United States. He was also the first president of Alcorn University.

Bethel AME Church was first organized and founded by Rev. Page Tyler, a missionary from Missouri. As the congregation grew, in 1868 the current church property was purchased at a cost of $28,000 from a white Presbyterian congregation that had built the church building on this site in 1828.

At one point in 1912 as the new building was being constructed, the congregation, then led by Rev. W.L. Anderson, met in a small chapel in the rear of a three-story hall on the campus of Campbell College. At that point the congregation numbered 550 parishioners.

Over time the congregation decreased due in part to the passing of its members. Nonetheless, the church community exhibited a strong desire to ensure the history of the church is preserved and continued to be shared. To that end, the city of Vicksburg and the state of Mississippi supported the successful effort to add the church to the National Register of Historic Places. On July 30, 1992 Bethel AME Church was added to the Register.

The Bethel AME congregation is currently led by Pastor Arnita Spencer who continues to share the message of God’s love and services to the community as well as the church’s historical legacy. Besides Senator Revels, prominent church members have included Isaiah Thornton Montgomery, the only African American member of the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890, also the founder of the town of the all-Black town of Mound Bayou in 1887 and Campbell College in 1890, John Lynch, the first African American Congressman from Mississippi, L.J. Bowman, Alcorn State University President, and William H. Jefferson, co-founder with his wife, of Jefferson Funeral Home, Mississippi’s oldest-black owned business and oldest registered black funeral home in the state. Lucy C. Jefferson, William Jefferson’s wife, was a prominent civic organizer who invited Booker T. Washington to come to the state. She also organized the Mississippi Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs.

Following the passage of the 13th Amendment on January 31, 1865, slavery was officially ended throughout the United States, including in the eleven former Confederate States. Almost immediately governments in these states began a process to reestablish white supremacy in the law. The result was the propagation of so-called “Black Codes” in 1865-1866.

The first Black Codes were enacted in Mississippi following the election of a new state legislature in 1865. Mississippi’s Codes, passed by the state legislature, recognized certain rights for former slaves. However, accompanying restrictions led to severe limitations on the rights of freedmen, while also ensuring that former slaves would continue to be exploited for cheap labor in the state. The primary issues addressed in the codes were civil rights, apprenticeships, vagrancy, and criminal law.

Concerning civil rights, the Mississippi Black Codes allowed freedmen to access the legal system, marry, own property, and contract employment. However, in the courts, Blacks were limited from serving as witnesses in civil cases solely between white litigants. Further, marriage between different races was punishable for both whites and non-whites by life imprisonment. Finally, limits were placed on former slaves’ ability to own property outside of the cities, and therefore, to move from the cities and engage in their own farming or land ownership.

Additionally, freedmen were severely limited in their ability to leave employment and seek out new, better paying employment opportunities. The Mississippi legislature also set criminal and financial penalties against any person who enticed or tried to entice a freedman away from an employment contract. Such limitations made it extremely difficult to seek out better paying jobs or change employment, thereby effectively eliminating true social mobility or autonomy.

Further, under new apprenticeship laws, county law enforcement and civil officials were required to report all free minors of Black or mixed race, who were orphans, or whose parents were unable to provide financial care for them, to the courts. The courts could then order the minors to work as apprentices for individuals whom the courts deemed suitable and competent; however, a minor’s former master had preference. In effect, this provision guaranteed that former owners had preference to ensure that the children of their former slaves would continue to labor for the master.

Similarly, in the vagrancy provisions of the Black Codes, the Mississippi legislature stated that any freedman who was unemployed within two weeks of the new year in 1866, was a vagrant. A vagrant needed to pay a fine, and if the vagrant was unable to pay the fine within five days, then the vagrant would be forced into jail and ultimately into unpaid labor.

Finally, criminal provisions restricted the types of property Blacks could own, as well as the types of property that could be purchased by or sold to Blacks. Again, criminal penalties and jail time would often result in a freedman being hired out.

In response, Congress passed the 14th and 15th Amendments, in 1868 and 1870 respectively. These amendments guaranteed freedmen equal protection under the law and the right to vote. In light of these new guarantees, the Black Codes were no longer operable. However, many of the same restrictions and limitations were again put in place through the propagation of Jim Crow laws throughout the South.