Political Quotes

“today I wish to recognize the 102nd anniversary of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Beloit, WI. Emmanuel Baptist Church was established on April 15, 1917, and has been a pillar of the community for the last 102 years. The church was founded during the peak of the Great Northward Migration, when more than 6 million African Americans migrated from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North and Midwest. Many northern manufacturing plants sought African-American migrants from the South to help replace white workers fighting in World War I. Beloit became a favored destination for many migrants thanks in part to a young African-American named John McCord from Pontotoc, MS, who helped the Fairbanks Morse manufacturing company in Beloit recruit Black labor from the southern town. African Americans were eager to escape the Jim Crow laws of the South and seek an improved quality of life for their families. As they settled in an unfamiliar part of the country, they sought solace in their faith and established the Second Emmanuel Baptist Church, now Emmanuel Baptist Church. The church held its first service at Kent Hall on State Street on April 15, 1917, for a small group of African Americans, all of whom worked at Fairbanks Morse. As their families grew and the Great Migration continued, the once small church quickly grew to a congregation of 100 by 1920. On June 3, 1927, formal incorporation papers were filed with the Rock County Registrar.…”