Abilene Christian UniversityNews Release Dr. Billy Curl will speak April 28 about his experience as one of the first two Black undergraduate students to integrate Abilene Christian University. The event, sponsored by ACU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, was originally part of Black History Month in February but had to be rescheduled due to the winter storm that hit Abilene and
Read morePew Research Center Black churches have historically taken on numerous civic roles in Black communities, stretching back as far as the antebellum period. And many, though not a majority, were involved in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, most Black Americans say that predominantly Black churches have helped Black people move toward equality in the
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Falling LeavesDedicated to the Black Lives We’ve Lost By STEVEN T. MOORE I look out the window, having realized evening approaches, and the golden hour — blazing like fire — send sparks lifting off into the air, abandoning the shiny surfaces of every leaf. They change slowly, the leaves, moving from green to red, then red to orange, then
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Editor’s Note: As a part of Black History Month, the Rev. Matthew M. Lubin Sr., pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, comments on a recent survey by the Barna Group about the relationship between Black Americans and the Black church, both historically and currently. Click here to read the entire survey. By Rev. MATTHEW M. LUBIN SR. The Black Church in
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Jemar Tisby, president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, will be guest speaker for the 2021 Don Williams and Royce Money Distinguished Lecture Series at Abilene Christian University Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 10-11. The series, hosted by ACU’s Carl Spain Center on Race Studies and Spiritual Action, will be presented in person and virtually. Both are free and open to
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By LORETTA FULTON In April 2020, local historian Jay Moore put together a self-guided tour of historic churches in Abilene, all but one of them serving predominantly Black congregations, as an answer to the question everyone had–What can we do during this COVID-19 shutdown? Unfortunately, almost a year later that’s still a good question. And Moore’s tour is still a
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By LORETTA FULTON The Rev. Andrew Penns, pastor at Valley View Missionary Baptist Church, grew up in Abilene and was in the last graduating class at Woodson High School. After graduating from Woodson, Penns served in the Army, including time in Vietnam. When he returned to Abilene, he didn’t like the racial environment he saw. So he moved to Austin
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By LORETTA FULTON The only thing missing from the Feb. 27 meeting of the Abilene Association of Congregations was an altar call. Otherwise, it would have been “church,” not a “meeting.” The presentation by Dr. Kelvin J. Kelley, who was a church pastor before he was a professor, was that powerful. Kelley, associate professor of theology in Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon
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By LORETTA FULTON Even if Stephanie Hamm didn’t want to be a social activist, she would have little choice. “I have social justice in my veins,” she said. Hamm, an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Abilene Christian University, was guest speaker Feb. 6 for the weekly program at First Central Presbyterian Church. Stephanie Hamm, left, visits
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