Diana Hines reacts to the music during a service Sunday morning, Oct. 8, 2017, celebrating 160th anniversary of the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, 1120 Grand Ave. The church was founded in Racine on March 22, 1857, as the Colored Union Baptist Church.
The since-replaced Colored Union Baptist Church in Racine, shown here, first held services March 22, 1857. It was the home of the founders Charles and Sarah Ware, and laid the foundation for what is now Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church.
People greet during an event called Day of Reparation on Sept. 28, 2019, at St. Paul Greater Missionary Baptist Church, 1120 Grand Ave. The event was held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of when the first African slaves were brought onto American soil in 1619.
RACINE — Colored Union Baptist Church held its first services on March 22, 1857, in the home of its founders, Charles and Sarah Ware, only 16 years after the incorporation of the then-Village of Racine.
Almost 165 years later, Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church, as it is now known, is celebrating the anniversary of its founding; all are invited to a celebratory service on Sunday at the church, 1120 Grand Ave.
Kirby
Bishop Lawrence Kirby said: “We’re inviting the public to come, particularly all former members who maybe got their start at this church.”
He said thousands of people have come through the church, some of whom are now members of other churches.
Services will be held on Sunday at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. The services also are to be livestreamed; details are listed on the church’s Facebook page and website.
Saint Paul
Kirby has been the pastor at Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church since 1981. He began his service in Tennessee and also preached in Mississippi before moving north to become the pastor of Saint Paul.
Church members feel the music during a service Sunday morning, Oct. 8, 2017, celebrating 160th anniversary of the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, 1120 Grand Ave.
The Saint Paul congregation has much to remember and celebrate, he said.
Sometime in the 1850s, Charles and Sarah Wear moved from Virginia, a slave state, to Wisconsin, which was part of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance and therefore came into the Union as a state that prohibited slavery, sometimes called “a free state.”
“We do not know what brought them here,” Kirby said, and added they do know the couple had four daughters; the church has tried to track their ancestry, without success.
Saint Paul remains the oldest active, registered African American church in Wisconsin, and is the largest predominantly black church in Racine.
Sharon Perkins from St. Paul Baptist Church performs a praise dance during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday Celebration Jan. 15, 2020, at Julian Thomas Elementary School. The celebration was organized by the Racine Mirror and featured Gov. Tony Evers.
In the 1880s, the church purchased a little white schoolhouse and moved it to Campbell Street, later renamed Grand Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets on property owned by the Wares, according to the church history.
The congregation worshiped in that schoolhouse until 1950, Kirby said, after which Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church became to first African American congregation to build a church from the ground up.
The little church was relocated to an area near the current church and stood there until the late 1970s when it was finally demolished.
Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church that was built in 1986.
In 1986, a modern church was built on the property, facing Center Street.
The church had several names over the past 165 years. In 1888, it was reorganized and recorded in the Register of Deeds Office as Second Baptist Colored Church of Racine County, WI.
In 1916, following a dispute over the deed, the church was reorganized and recorded again, this time as Saint Paul Baptist Church Society.
In 1949, when it was discovered the church was registered under two different names in the Register of Deeds Office, the two names were consolidated into Saint Paul Baptist Missionary Baptist Church.
Community
Kirby said churches have always been the central gathering place for the black community, whose members were blackballed from other types of community clubs and public institutions.
“So the church became that gathering place for the community,” he added. “And in a real sense it was and still is, in my opinion, the strongest institution in the African American community.
“It is the church, I believe, that led the struggle and the fight for more equality in the United States of America, right on the forefront of leading the movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s that did cause the country to enact more laws that are more fair to all the citizens, not just part of the citizens.”
He pointed out almost all of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement were connected to the church.
“In the midst of all the things African Americans went through, the church was the institution that gave them hope,” Kirby said.
Colored Union Baptist Church, as Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church was known at the time of its founding in 1857, was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Colored Union Baptist Church was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and a historical marker has been placed on the property to memorialize its history.
While the church started off serving the black community, it has long been integrated and has had a racially diverse membership.
Sharon Perkins from St. Paul Baptist Church performs a praise dance during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday Celebration Jan. 15, 2020, at Julian Thomas Elementary School. The celebration was organized by the Racine Mirror and featured Gov. Tony Evers.
The future
When asked what the church had to do to have another 165 years, Kirby said it has to continue to have outreach programs, particularly for children, youths and young adults.
He said it’s important to show them the church is an institution that can “still instill hope in them and a sense of self-worth and belonging.”
He said some young people, particularly African American youth, do not have the kind of connection to the church that their parents and grandparents had, and are cut off from the hope the church can provide.
African American churches in particular, he said, are reaching out to young people and saying: “This is the place for you.”
Burlington’s St. Francis Friary history, in photos
St. Francis Friary
St. Francis Friary is shown here.
St. Francis Friary in Burlington 146-acre complex may be redeveloped
An aerial image provided by the Burlington Historical Society shows the St. Francis Friary residential compound surrounded by other structures and landmarks on a 146-acre property at 2457 Browns Lake Drive in Burlington.
2000
The St. Francis Retreat Center, Highway W, in the Town of Burlington, is shown here in May 2000.
Balloons for Franciscans
Fr. Sereno Baiardi, right, of the Franciscan Missions, Inc., in Waterford, inflates a balloon as other volunteers sell them for $1 to festival goers to the Harvest Festival Sunday, August 18, 1996, at the St. Francis Retreat Center in Burlington. Proceeds from the balloon sale go to fund missions around the world.
Running at the friary
An umbrella-carrying spectator watches as boys varsity runners stream past during their race at the Chocolate City Invitational Cross Country meet Saturday, Oct. 3, 1998, at the St. Francis Friary and Retreat Center in Burlington.
Running at the friary
Varsity boys run the course at St. Francis Seminary and Retreat during the Chocolate City Invitational cross country meet in Burlington on Oct. 2, 1999.
Grotto at St. Francis
A couple walks along a path in the grotto Sunday, July 6, 1997 at the St. Francis Retreat Center in Burlington.
Grotto at St. Francis
A shrine to the Virgin Mary in the Grotto is shown Sunday, July 6, 1997, at the St. Francis Retreat Center in Burlington.
A clown pastor
Pastor Steve Blyth of Zion Lutheran Church, 3805 Kinzie Ave., in Racine, helps the Franciscans gather donations for missions by offering balloons to festival goers for a donation at St. Francis Retreat Center’s 17th annual Harvest Festival Sunday, Aug. 16, 1998, near Burlington. Blyth ties a balloon on the wrist of Timothy Gray Jr., 2, while his mother Maria looks on.
Mass at the friary
Spanish-language Mass was offered weekly at St. Charles Catholic Church in Burlington as part of the outreach programs of the St. Francis Retreat Center in Burlington. This photo was originally published June 22, 1998.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Tammatha Jones unpacks her belongings in her new room at St. Francis Retreat Center on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005. Jones’ family was forced to relocate from their homes in Slidell, Louisiana after floodwaters left their home uninhabitable following damage sustained by Hurricane Katrina. The family made St. Francis their temporary home.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Mary Jones looks through papers she has filed in an organizer. Jones’ family make the St. Francis Retreat Center their temporary home, after evacuating from Slidell, Louisiana following hurricane Katrina. Jones uses the organizer to keep family documentation together and to organize the family’s search for an apartment to live in Burlington.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Volunteers Mary Krumrey, left, and Charlotte Dyson, both of Burlington, make a bed Thursday morning, September 8, 2005, as they help get the St. Francis Center ready to receive evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Close to 50 volunteers spent the day cleaning rooms and preparing the center.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Tammatha Jones meets with the Red Cross Disaster Services representative at St. Francis Retreat Center on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005. Jones family was forced to relocate from their homes in Slidell, Louisiana after floodwaters left their home uninhabitable following damage sustained by Hurricane Katrina. The family made St. Francis their temporary home.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Cyndi Armstrong, of what was then known as the Western Racine County Health Department, takes the temperature of Scott Young. Armstrong gave medical screenings to Young, brother Sylvester Watkins and mother Tammatha Jones as the family arrived at the St. Francis Retreat Center on Sept. 21, 2005. The family was forced to relocate from their home in Slidell, Louisiana, after floodwaters left their home uninhabitable following damage sustained by Hurricane Katrina. The family made St. Francis its temporary home.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Volunteer Molly Ellingstad of Burlington, vacuums a room Thursday morning, September 8, 2005, as she helps get the St. Francis Center ready to receive evacuees. Close to 50 volunteers spent the day cleaning rooms and preparing the center.
Katrina evacuees find refuge at St. Francis Friary in Burlington
Mary Jones folds laundry Wednesday, September 28, 2005, as her mother Louise Brianer watches in the laundry room at St. Francis Center in Burlington. The family evacuated to Burlington after their home is Slidell, La., was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Rev. Jerry Zawada
Rev. Jerry Zawada, pictured in 2004 at age 66, a Franciscan priest based at the St. Francis Monastery near Burlington, is preparing to surrender to serve at least six months in a federal prison after being found guilty for trespassing during a November protest demanding the closing of the Army’s School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga. Photographed on February 3, 2004. Zawada died in 2017.
A Franciscan crafter
Brother Mike Kulan works on a miniature pine carousel horse in his workshop at the St. francis Friary and Retreat Center in Burlington. He opened the Franciscan Crafters Shop to raise money to help the needy. This photo was originally published Feb. 13, 1995.
Supporting St. Francis
Spectators walk past hand-carved Franciscan religious iconography in the Franciscan Mission Hut during Franciscan Harvest Festival on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2004, at the St. Francis Center in Burlington. Proceeds from sales went to support the work of the Franciscans internationally.
2002
Ralph Tenhagen walks through the tree lined entrance to the St. Francis Retreat Center Tuesday afternoon, May 7, 2002, after the Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary Province decided to close the landmark center located off Highway W near Highway 36 in the Town of Burlington.
2011
Brother Mike Kulan, who has been the St. Francis Friary property manager, had been working to put the building back into use in the summer of 2011. Behind him is an ornately carved doorway to the cafeteria in the 1930 part of the building. This photo was originally published Thursday June 2, 2011.
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