[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5677]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 5677]]

                          EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS

 ST. MARK AME CHURCH CELEBRATES 133 YEARS OF SERVICE IN THE MILWAUKEE 
                               COMMUNITY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GERALD D. KLECZKA

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 24, 2002

  Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, on April 26, 2002 St. Mark African 
Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church will celebrate its 133rd 
anniversary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1869, a time when African 
Americans made up less than 1 percent of the city of Milwaukee's 
population, St. Mark A.M.E. Church was founded in a former site of a 
German Congregation. Although no longer at that location today, St. 
Mark is one of the oldest, largest and most influential congregations 
in Milwaukee.
  The A.M.E. Church in the United States was founded out of the 
Methodist tradition but with its roots in the segregationist attitudes 
of that period in our history. In 1787, a group of slaves and former 
slaves in the Philadelphia area withdrew from St. George's Methodist 
Episcopal Church when they were not permitted to sit with the 
congregation, but were forced to sit separately in the gallery. They 
formed their own church, the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) 
Church, and committed themselves to living the gospel and adopted the 
motto of ``God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother.'' 
After its founding, the A.M.E. church spread quickly throughout the 
Northern states, and eventually moved into the South after the Civil 
War.
  Eighty-two years after the A.M.E. church's founding in the United 
States, a group of African American activists came together in 
Milwaukee, to establish St. Mark. Several of St. Mark founding members 
had a positive and permanent impact on the African-American Community 
in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Mr. Ezekiel Gillespie, a former slave from 
Georgia who served as chairman of the group that founded St. Mark in 
1869, filed a historic lawsuit that eventually led to full suffrage for 
African-Americans in Wisconsin. The Reverend Eugene Thompson, a former 
pastor at St. Mark, was one of the founding board members of Columbia 
Building, which in 1924 began helping African-Americans buy homes in 
the Milwaukee area.
  This history of living one's faith through activism provides the 
foundation for a legacy of service to the community. Current 
initiatives and ministries at St. Mark are operated through the Lovell 
Johnson Quality of Life Center, and include counseling for alcohol and 
drug abuse; assistance with economic development, education and 
employment opportunities, as well as environmental preservation. The 
church also created the Anvil Housing Corporation and was the first 
African-American congregation in Wisconsin to sponsor senior citizen 
and disabled housing. St. Mark also fosters public service and 
patriotism in its youngest members through its sponsorship of Boy Scout 
and Girl Scout troops.
  So it is with great pride that I congratulate the congregation of St. 
Mark A.M.E. Church and its Pastor, Reverend Michael A. Cousin, on 133 
years of giving glory to God by living the gospel and serving our 
community.

                          ____________________