Celebrate Black History Month at St. Frederick Baptist Church
St. Frederick Baptist Church Pastor George Perry and African-American History Museum Administrator Bessie Jackson ready to welcome visitors to the completed museum located at 301 Avenue N in Marble Falls. Hours may vary. Call 830-693-4499 or visit stfrederick.com for more information. Staff photo by David Bean.
Mark your calendars for multiple Black History Month celebrations at St. Frederick Baptist Church, 301 Avenue N in Marble Falls, this month. All events are free; donations are appreciated.
SOUL FOOD TASTING
11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 21
Fellowship Hall
Enjoy a variety of soul food, including chitlins, black-eyed peas, collard greens, pigs’ feet, and more.
GOSPEL MUSIC
7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27
Sanctuary
An evening of spiritual music and inspiring speakers.
GRAND OPENING
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28
African-American History Museum
Following its soft opening last year, the museum is ready for prime time.
A bit of church history
Dicey Yett and Green Johnson jumped a broom to seal their marriage five years after being freed as slaves. They lived in a small house behind the Roper Hotel on U.S. 281, where they worked, raised nine children, and founded a church and school. What is now St. Frederick Baptist Church, and what was the Colored Normal George Washington Carver Elementary School until desegregation in 1964, began in the Johnsons’ living room in the 19th century.
Although the school is gone, the church remains and is celebrating Black History Month and the grand opening of its African-American History Museum on the last two weekends in February.
The church has been a bastion of the Black community in Marble Falls since its founding in 1893, when its congregation of former enslaved people sang its first hymns of praise and freedom from a home on East Third Street. This is an excerpt from “Rooted in history” in the February edition of The Picayune Magazine it is now available for online reading, here.