Mike Thompson: “for 109 years the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church has served the people of the small rural town of Kossuth, MS.…”

“for 109 years the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church has served the people of the small rural town of Kossuth, MS. Today all that remains of that church and the Central Grove Baptist Church, another small black church barely 5 miles away, is ashes. The members of these two churches awoke this morning to find their names added to the long toll of over 100 heartbroken congregations since 1991. Though they rise from their beds surrounded by ruins, the people of these two churches did not awake to defeat, but determination. You see Mr. Speaker, these two Mississippi churches were built years ago with old bricks and wood by the sons and daughters of slaves. The structures may be burned, but their foundations were laid in the spirit of hope, and neither hatred nor evil has the power to destroy them forever. It is the spirit of these congregations that will rise, steeped in faith, to take up hammers and mortar to rebuild our churches. Those of you who come in the dark shadows, beware.”