By CAROLYN CARY
Our Fayette Heritage
The fifth Sunday in August at the Edgefield Baptist Church
in Fayetteville has come to be very special to me.
The fifth Sunday in August, 1982, found me walking out
of the church with $2,000 in cash under my arm.
The Fayette County Courthouse had been
firebombed just four months before (Easter Sunday, April 11, 1982,
10:35 p.m.) and everyone in the county was doing their part to raise
the funds needed to put it back together.
It was the custom at the time for the Black Baptist churches
to take turns meeting together on fifth Sundays. They had put
out the word that each church was to take up a special collection to
be given to the Fayette County Historical Society, which
had been named as the primary force behind the restoration.
Several county commissioners were on hand as well as
members of the historical society, and it was an event like none
other. Combined choirs sang and looked like a spring flower garden
in their various color robes, preachers of varying ages
led resounding amens and several hundred people
were glad to be sharing the moment.
At the first passing of the donation plate, the churches
had brought in nearly $1,800 and it was decided that I
could not walk out with less than $2,000. So the plate was
passed again and again, and I left with that grand sum.
Besides remembering being touched by this action,
I especially remember the words of my friend, the late Tucker Penson.
"We're not just doing this," he said as he addressed
the parishioners, "because the people who tried to destroy
the Courthouse were Black. We did not do this to make amends.
We did it because it's our Courthouse too, and we want to see it
put back."
Amen, Brother Tucker.
This past fifth Sunday at Edgefield Baptist found
me participating in the restoration of its baptismal fount. There
was dinner on the grounds at 4 p.m., a rousing amen service at 5
p.m. and at 6 p.m. five stalwart candidates entered the pool
and were baptized.
I stood with a woman whose daughter used to baby-sit
my daughter over 25 years ago. She shared with me that she was
67 years old and had been baptized in the pool when she was 13
years old. On this day, she witnessed her granddaughter
participating in that same event.
Memories are happy things that happen to you that are
completely unexpected. Boy, have I got memories of the fifth Sunday
in August at Edgefield Baptist!
Carolyn Cary is Fayette County's official historian and editor of "The
History of Fayette County," published by the Fayette County Historical Society.