[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 120 (Thursday, September 12, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1308-E1309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING FARISH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 12, 2013

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor 
Farish Street Baptist Church. Organized in 1893, Farish Street Baptist 
Church has been blessed by the vitality, imagination, and inspiration 
of its leadership.
  The Reverend Elbert B. Topp served as pastor of Mt. Helm Baptist 
Church from 1888-1893, when, according to Patrick Thompson in his book 
History of Negro Baptists in Mississippi, ``he (Topp) with 210 members 
came out and organized what is now known as the Farish Street Baptist 
Church.'' The newly formed church held worship services in the 
Congregational Church, which was then located at the corner of Capitol 
and Lamar Streets. White Jacksonians would line the bridge to hear the 
choir sing, giving generously to the collections. Soon the infant 
congregation had enough money to purchase the lot at the corner of 
Farish and Church Streets. It was here that the newly organized 
congregation built the first place of worship--a frame structure. 
Lightning destroyed this building and it was replaced by a two-story 
frame structure. The second story was reserved for worship, with all 
other activities, including funerals, taking place on the first level. 
A fire, which began on Oakley Street and spread, destroyed the second 
building. Determined to minimize this threat in the future, in 1909, 
Reverend Topp led the membership in constructing a brick building. He 
pastured Farish Street Baptist Church until 1916.
  Reverend Topp died on October 3, 1925. The October 9 edition of the 
Advance Dispatch carried a front page announcement of his death. Of 
Topp, Patrick Thompson wrote, ``no member of the convention and state 
is more conspicuous and popular. Reverend Topp is good natured and full 
of life. True to his fellow preachers and has but few equals as a 
gospel minister.''
  Reverend E. L. Twine, an Alcorn College graduate and teacher of 
mathematics, was called to serve the Church in 1916, and for three 
years, he labored faithfully. During that brief tenure, he encouraged 
the congregation to purchase new pews and to make a substantial payment 
on the church mortgage, which had been left from previous years. His 
pastorate was to be the shortest during the Church's first 100 years of 
existence. Because of his stately nature, Reverend Twine would be known 
by his contemporaries as the ``Black Prince of Mississippi.''
  In November 1919, the Church extended the call to Reverend Chester 
Arthur Greer. Reverend Greer had pastored and taught school in Arkansas 
and Mississippi, and at the time he was called to Farish Street Baptist 
Church, he was serving as pastor of Second Baptist Church in Oxford, 
Mississippi. He served as pastor of Farish Street Baptist Church until 
November 1927. During those eight years, the mortgage was paid in full; 
the bell tower was completed; an annex was built onto the 1909 
structure; a parsonage was bought; an old note of $500.00 on Dr. Topp's 
salary, held by Brother C. C. Sims against the Church was redeemed; 
40,000 bricks were bought and placed on the church grounds to be used 
in the construction of a new church facility; plans and specifications 
with an architect's rendering had been presented in the church 
conference on March 4, 1926, and had been approved without one 
dissenting vote; several hundred dollars were raised and negotiations 
for a loan of $20,000 were initiated. However, in November 1927, just a 
little more than a year after Dr. Greer had presented those plans to 
the church, he resigned and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to accept the 
pastorate of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church.
  Reverend W. L. Varnado assumed the pastorate of Farish Street Baptist 
Church in April 1928. Perhaps Reverend Varnado will be remembered best 
as the only person to pastor Jackson's three historic black 
congregations--Mt. Helm, College Hill and Farish Street Baptist 
Churches. During his term of service, the membership increased and two 
rooms were added to the parsonage. Reverend Varnado was a great 
churchman. It was during his pastorate that a young Jackson State 
College student from the Class of 1927 was ordained to the gospel 
ministry. His name was Joseph Harrison Jackson. Who would have 
envisioned in 1927 that Reverend Varnado was ordaining to the work of 
the gospel ministry the future leader of six million black Baptists? 
Dr. Varnado resigned in October 1934 to accept a pastorate in Jackson, 
Tennessee.
  Without fanfare, the man who had served diligently as the third 
pastor returned in January 1935, to begin his second pastorate. 
Reverend Chester A. Greer began a building program, which resulted in 
the replacement of the forty year old structure with a modern building, 
which still serves the congregation today. The ground-breaking ceremony 
was a joyous occasion. Mrs. Lillie Bentley and Mr. Turner M. Patterson, 
two of the original 210 members to leave Mt. Helm Baptist Church in 
1893, participated in breaking ground for the new facility. Dr. Jacob 
L. Reddix, President of Jackson State College, Chairman of the Trustee 
Board of Farish Street Baptist Church, gave invaluable advice during 
the construction phase. At the laying of the corner stone, Jackson 
State College Band performed to the delight of the congregation. 
Dedication services for the newly constructed church building were held 
during the week of March 5-12, 1950. A renewed people joined hands with 
their sisters and brothers to praise Him Who is the great Builder and 
without Whom they that build, build in vain.
  After serving for twenty-three years during his second pastorate, 
Reverend Greer was successful in retiring the debt and burning the 
mortgage before his victorious and faithful members. With his health on 
the decline, Reverend Greer decided to retire from the pulpit in March 
1958. Reverend Greer was named ``Pastor Emeritus'' of the Church. Three 
decades of service to a great people had come to an end. The assistant 
pastor, Reverend G. W. Williams, supplied the pulpit until a successor 
was elected. Reverend Greer died on August 13, 1962.
  During the summer of 1958, a young seminary teacher, Reverend S. Leon 
Whitney, came to Jackson to teach at the Mississippi Baptist Seminary. 
He was invited to preach to the congregation at Farish Street Baptist 
Church. Impressed with his preaching, on September 4, 1958, the 
congregation instructed the Pulpit Committee, chaired by Brother M. M. 
Hubert, to interview Reverend Whitney. On September 22, 1958, the 
Pulpit Committee made its recommendation to the Church. A meeting to 
vote on extending a call was set for the third Sunday in October. 
However, Brother D. T. Mason offered a motion that the rules be 
suspended and that Reverend Whitney be elected pastor that night. The 
motion carried and the church extended the call to pastor to Reverend 
Whitney. Thus began a term of service that lasted ten years.
  Unlike his predecessors, Reverend Whitney did not inherit the 
financial debts of former years. He found a congregation ready for new 
leadership. Reverend Whitney served wisely and made many improvements 
in the order of service. Moreover, he rejuvenated the spirit of the 
Church and increased the membership. He encouraged the establishment of 
a centralized treasury. The baptistry was elevated, and the building 
was renovated and redecorated. This youthful, energetic preacher 
accepted the challenge and embarked upon an aggressive ministry of 
evangelism, stewardship and social concerns. It was these social 
concerns--the freedom rides, the sit-ins, the protest marches and the 
mass meetings--that helped shape the ministry of this congregation 
during the turbulent sixties. Yet, despite ten years of fruitful, 
positive and constructive leadership in the church and community, 
Reverend Whitney resigned the pastorate of Farish Street Baptist Church 
in May 1968, to accept the pastorate of New Prospect Baptist Church in 
Detroit, Michigan.
  In June 1968, Reverend Hickman M. Johnson, Chaplain of Tougaloo 
College, was invited to serve as interim minister. On July 22, 1968, 
the church voted to call Reverend Johnson and on August 4, 1968, he 
preached his first sermon as pastor. On December 1, 1968, Reverend 
Johnson was installed as the sixth pastor of Farish Street Baptist 
Church. Reverend Johnson brought to the Church a strong capacity for 
effective organization. He recommended that the Church become 
incorporated and on November 13, 1969, a Charter of Incorporation was 
issued to Farish Street Baptist Church by the State of Mississippi. He 
labored for a continuous and consistent building program and 
established the necessary framework for the most diversified religious 
education and service-oriented programs in the Church's history. A 1969 
church brochure described the proposed building addition as being ``of 
contemporary design, functional, attractive and air-conditioned, with 
ample parking . . . the first floor includes: administrative complex--
church office, pastor's study; fellowship-assembly hall, game room, 
dining room, kitchen; the second floor includes: education-nursery, ten 
large multi-purpose classrooms.'' While improvements were to be made on 
the 1969 model, nevertheless, the functions on which this model were 
based remain unchanged: a) education, b) fellowship, and c) 
administration.
  At the 1976 Annual Meeting, the Building Committee recommended that 
the Church authorize its officers to secure a commitment for

[[Page E1309]]

permanent financing in the amount of $225,000. On February 10, 1976, a 
contract was signed with Charles Craig, project architect, to design 
and provide a set of working drawings. Invitations to Bid were tendered 
and proposals received from various contractors were tabulated and 
groundbreaking ceremonies for the new building were timed to coincide 
with the celebration of the Church's 83rd Anniversary. One year later, 
in May 1977, the Educational Building was dedicated. This would be the 
first of several major improvements to the physical property completed 
during the Johnson's years. Dr. Johnson is an administrator with great 
spirit; an historian who is cognizant of the importance of a people's 
heritage; a businessman with a vision. He is a theologian and a 
teacher, who strives daily to build an even stronger congregation at 
Farish Street Baptist Church--a congregation committed to serve this 
community.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Farish 
Street Baptist Church.

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