Q: Could you please tell us the history of Calvary Baptist Church?

The Calvary Baptist Church dates back to a small group called the Prayer Band in 1892. The congregation was started with the African-Americans when it was discovered that they could not be part of full religious groups in this community. They also felt the need to begin their own institutions and among those were the Calvary Baptist Church, as well as the Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church. Those two churches were the oldest, and they both were starteed before Utah was a state -- in 1890 and 1892, respectively.

Since that time the congregation of the Calvary Church has continued to grow. It is a major part of the larger community. Organizations like the NAACP, OIC, and other African-American business enterprises were started by and operated by the Calvary Baptist Church. The congregation today consists largely of children, middle-aged people and senior citizens, and we're getting ready to build a new facility because the current one is just out of space.

Q: What were the motives for building Calvary Baptist Church?

The primary reason why the church was built was to meet the spiritual needs of African-Americans were living here in this community. They had come largely as part of the railroad moving westward, the extention of business in enterprises such as the hotels, and the military coming westward, as well as some of the mines. And they needed a place that they could call home, a place that they could be spiritually fed and their need be taken care of, so they started the Calvary Baptist Church as one of those.

Well, for African-Americans, historically the place where they have found freedom of expression, freedom of participation, and freedom of input has been the African-American Church. Thus, here in this community it has been a gathering place. It's a place where African-Americans can feel like they are in charge and they control what happens and what does not happen. They can have their input and the free and whatever expressions they chose to use.

Q: Tell us what Utah was like when you first moved here.

I came to Utah in 1972, recruited as a teaching fellow and graduate student at the University of Utah in Communications; tat was my beginning and primary reason for coming. When I first got here I discovered that it was not a community that I particularly wanted to stay, and so I made plans promptly to move on some place else after one year. However, about the end of that year, the pastor of this congregation departed and they asked me to fill in until they could find a pastor...and here we are 26 years later and I am still filling in.

What are some of the challenges you've met in this state?

Some of the challenges have been dealing with the political system here in the State of Utah, finding, for example, ways of making sure that this congregation -- a small, relatively speaking independent congregation -- was treated fairly by the taxing authorities. Other challenges have included Civil Rights issues, such as getting the Martin Luther King holiday, a bill passed here in Utah, and naming a street Martin Luther King.

There have been the major challenges for the membership of our congregation to find adequate housing, adequate jobs, and getting a higher education. We as a congregation are committed to doing all of those things to ensure that our people get their needs met, and while we are primarily spiritual, we are also active in whatever causes people to hurt.

Right next door to the Calvary Baptist Church at 516 East 700 South is the Calvary Towers. It's a housing complex, that houses 30 families of elderly and physically handicapped low-income people. It's designed to make sure that those people in their respective catagories have safe, affordable housing. Their housing is subsidized both by the church and by the Section 8 Federal Government program. It's one of the greater things we have been able to do. We say to the elderly, "We appreciate what you did earlier in your life, and now we believe that you should have some comfort."

Q: Can you give us an idea of other African-American churches in Utah?

There are some 22 or 23 African-American Churches in the state of Utah. They are either in Weber County, Davis County, or Salt Lake County. They all play similar roles to this congregation. This congregation, however, is what may be called the Mother Church. That is, that the others grew out of this congregation. They all serve a similar role by serving people within their communities -- whether that's in Ogden, whether that's in Kaysville, whether that's in another part of Salt Lake City, and they do a tremendous job. Their focus depends upon who their pastor is at the given time, but meeting the needs of their people is the important issue.

Q: How do you interact with other churches in Utah? Recently, the 4th of April, I, along with a number people, a Mr. Gilmore, and the Bishops of the respective congregations -- Greek Orthodox, Episcopal, and Catholic -- planned and carried out in Price, Utah, a day of reconciliation. It had to do with the last lynching that happened in the western part of the United States of America.

In 1925 Robert Marshall was lynched in the Price, Utah area. That lynching occured because he was accused of shooting a security guard at the local mine. He was never tried, and there was never any legal avenue to say that he was guilty of that crime, but he was lynched. We had a day of reconcillation where these religious leaders gathered, as well as some 300 to 400 people, and it was a marvelous day for both marking his grave and for reminding ourselves of where we have come from in terms of violence toward African-Americans.

Q: The Calvary Baptist Church has a talented and strong choir. Can you describe the historical importance music has played in the lives of African-Americans?

Music for African-Americans has always been a tool both for their religious expression and for general conversation. The negro spirituals, for example, have a duel language. On one hand they talk about the spiritual nature and experience of African-Americans, and on the other hand, they are a code language for communicating with each other. For example, the negro spiritual, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" on the surface talks about going to heaven away from life here and getting a ride to heaven. But on the other hand, it talks about getting out of slavery , across the Mason-Dixon Line into Canada or someplace else. So it was a tool for not only communicating about a religious experience, but also about how we deal with life and its issues.

Q: What are your church's plans for the future?

In terms of the future, we believe that the key is to contact and make a difference in the lives of youth through, among other things, mentoring programs and schlorship assistance. Our youth, we believe, until they can get the best formal education, learn how to read, go to college, etc., they will miss out on what life will have to offer for the future.

As a result of that, for example, we ran a computerized pre-school reading program that is designed to start our kids out reading at a very early age. We also run a mentoring program to try to help them to figure out what life is going to be for them professionally, and how to decide the issues of life in terms of what professions they are going to go into. So I think the future will depend upon the decisions that they make and how they go about life.

I think also that, in terms of living here in Salt Lake City, this community is becoming more and more diverse and I believe that as it becomes more and more diverse, then we'll have to also persue more and more inclusion instead of exclusion.

Q: How do you determine what message you want to share with your congregation each Sunday?