,~,

C ~•:alight
-•■ Street
-•Church
Light Street Presbyterian Church and Race:
A Historical Perspective
Christopher A. Watson
April 11, 2021

1 Introduction
In June 2020, following the murders earlier in the year of George Floyd, Breonna
Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks, the Session and staff of Light
Street Presbyterian Church released a statement acknowledging the reality of
systemic racism and our own complicity in systems of oppression and white
supremacy, recognizing racism as sin and our responsibility as people of faith to
name and eradicate it, and affirming the God-given value of every human life.
We say here again: Black Lives Matter.
We resolved at that time to back up these statements with a series of activ-
ities centering the cause of racial justice in the life of our congregation. These
activities included small groups focused on discussions of race and racism, a
prioritization of our community organizing work with BUILD, and the comple-
tion of a report on the racial history of our church. While this document is
primarily intended to inform the congregation of our progress in that histori-
cal research, it is also informed by the discussions of our small group and our
continued engagement with our neighbors in the Sharp-Leadenhall community.

1.1 A Few Words of Caution

It is prudent to lay out some of the stylistic decisions that were made in preparing
the report at the outset.
A variety of materials, including books and newspaper articles, were used in
preparing this report. In general, these materials are the product of individuals
who carried with them their own biases and perspectives of their contemporary
environment. Throughout the report, these perspectives are often shared with-
out critique, but this should not be interpreted as an endorsement of those views

1
or perspectives. Rather, we have simply included where possible references to
the source materials to provide context.
Likewise, where sources are being directly quoted, we have made no attempt
to modernize language, in particular language used to refer to Black Americans
or people of color in general. Beyond such quotations, we have chosen to capi-
talize Black as a matter of respect and to use it as a descriptor rather than e.g.
African American to reflect our best understanding of the most appropriate and
inoffensive usage at the time of writing.
This is a living document that has been produced by a group of individuals
who, while well-intentioned, have no formal training in historiography. Fur-
thermore, while this report reflects contributions from a number of individuals
who participated in the small group discussions and reviews of historical mate-
rials including the minutes of the Session, the corresponding author takes full
responsibility for any inaccuracies that may have found their way into this doc-
ument. Additions, corrections, and other contributions are welcomed by e-mail
at watsonca@protonmail.com.

2 South Presbyterian Church and the Baltimore

Presbytery in the Mid-19th Century
The church that we now know as Light Street Presbyterian was originally
founded as a Sabbath school under the direction of J. Henry Kaufman, in
October of 1853 in Armstrong Hall, on the northeastern corner of Light and
Montgomery. Rev. Kaufman was ordained on June 11, 1854,1 , and his services
were funded through the efforts of the Ladies’ Missionary Sewing Society of the
First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore.2 The Sabbath School grew to be one
of the largest in the city, having some 200-300 students by the time the church
construction was begun in November 18543 and 500 students, with a faculty of
30 officers and teachers, by the early 1870s.4
The Sabbath School was to be the seed of a new church in Federal Hill,
and indeed the mid-19th century was a busy time for the founding of new
churches. Driven largely by the First and Second Churches, eight Presbyterian
churches were founded in Baltimore between 1844 and 1855: Aisquith Street,
Broadway, Franklin Street, Westminster, Central, Madison Avenue, Twelfth,
and South (which was later renamed Light Street).5 In fact, the construction of
the South (Light Street) Presbyterian Church was postponed in favor of building
the Twelfth Church for the unchurched Irish Presbyterians in the northwestern
1 “Ordination Services,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 2, 10 June 1854.
2 Rev. John Chester Backus, “An historical discourse on taking leave of the old church
edifice of the First Presbyterian congregation in Baltimore,” 1859.
3 “The Southern Presbyterian Church,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 1, 20 November 1854.
4 “Sunday School Anniversary,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 4, 17 February 1871.
5 Joseph T. Smith, Eighty Years: Embracing a History of Presbyterianism in Baltimore,

Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1899.

2
part of Baltimore, for fear that they would otherwise leave the faith.6 Construc-
tion of the South Church began thereafter, in 1854, once again at the behest of
the women of the First Presbyterian Church.

2.1 South Presbyterian did not have a singular benefactor

Insofar as Light Street Church was
founded (as South Church) in 1855,
one focus of our research efforts was ~ . 11tAe,.,. l'rubl/tcrin CA ■ rch.-Tlle ~
to establish whether and to what ex- or late years in tJie number or P n a ~
Churches in Baltimore is aomewhat remarbble,
tent our church was the beneficiary in<licating, as it dom, the commendable and .i,.
dforts or the JllOllbera and rrtnds of the Churches
of wealth accumulated by the trading or
coral
!lat d<'nomination to supply enr
t. In addition to the new C urchis
or labor of enslaved people,7 as was latelv built or now inPl'OKl'flS in tJai.! cit}", another
one has been projecteil in South Baltimore for the
sometimes the case in that time. con~tlon or the Southern Prebyterian Ch?J'clt,
under the pastoral charp or the Rn. J. Henry
The most direct way such a ben- Kaueman, who, in CODJW>Ctlon with a laT'p an.I
lntluentlu committee, assoclaled with him ln th
efit would arise would be if an indi- entAirprbe, bas succeeded=·v1ng quite an Im•
petus to the cal&S8 or b m In the nth•
vidual known to have profited from ffII on of !be city. bbors for !Dme tlm
past, first u a Missionary and then u a sett
the enslavement of people contributed ~tor, ba..-e evidently ed with su •
At the place or ..or.,hi_p there la a Sonday School
or rrom 200 to 3llO children, and which hni.Dg 'be-
a sum of money to the founding of come too small for U,am they ha..-e dete:rmm to
build a handaome ne,r Church edillce, of appro-
our church. However, large financial priate cbaractff and accommodatl• at the cor-
ner or Litiht and Church meets, the cornn
gifts to or for new churches were a er which iato bo !.lid next Thunda;, (Th
g!•ing day) at 4 o'clock in the aftftnoon. In the
rarity for the Baltimore Presbytery in ,-enice of that oecaafon, the Be..-. Dr. Badcm, tlae
Re.-. Stuart Rohl n, and others, will take part.
this period. Joseph Smith, writing in Me,ns. Dillon Balbi:nu Di.Ion are the archi·
tee emrloy;f, and lib-. Wm. W. ,·ewman, r-
1899 as Pastor Emeritus of the Cen- pentn- the con loT far the bulldiJl•. The
Church b ae designed u to dmit of a SDire, c:lDG.,
tral Presbyterian Church, explains,8 belfry, c., bein added at a ru~ time.
“Most of our churches originated in
Sunday-schools, established in little
rooms, in the basement or on the up- Figure 1: Story announcing the start of
per floor of private dwellings. From construction of the South Presbyterian
this they merged into a chapel, small Church from the 20 November, 1854 is-
and rude, but taxing to the utmost sue of The Baltimore Sun.
the resources of the builders. It was
only after long delays and strenuous exertions the church at last appeared bur-
dened with a heavy debt, under which it was compelled to stagger for years.”
In particular, he cites Brown Memorial, which did receive a large initial
endowment from Isabella Brown for the church edifice and its pastor’s salary,
as unique for being “strong in all the elements of material, social and spiritual
strength.” It should be noted, of course, that while we at Light Street cannot
point to a singular benefactor who may or may not have had financial interests
tied to the trading or labor of enslaved people, these practices were an integral
6 Rev. John Chester Backus, “An historical discourse on taking leave of the old church

edifice of the First Presbyterian congregation in Baltimore,” 1859.

7 For an excellent resource on the history of slavery in Maryland before the mid-19th century,

see “A Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland.”

8 Joseph T. Smith, Eighty Years: Embracing a History of Presbyterianism in Baltimore,

Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1899.

3
part of the economic system of the United States and of the South in particular
(including rural Maryland), such that it is unlikely that any institution of its
time would not have profited in some fashion from them.
To this end, the following sections explore the possibility that early members
of the church or those with a hand in its founding may have themselves owned
enslaved people.

2.2 No Clear Ownership of Enslaved People by Members

of the Church
To date, we have found no clear evidence of ownership over enslaved people
among the original members of the South Presbyterian Church. In this section,
we discuss two individual whose names match names of owners on the Slave
Schedules for the 1860 United States Census and why we do not believe them
to be the same individuals.
An Elizabeth Cator is listed in the 1860 Slave Schedule for Baltimore City
Ward 15 as the owner of 4 enslaved persons (males aged 30 and 40 and females
aged 25 and 9), but this does not appear to be the same Elizabeth Cator who
was a prominent member of the Light Street Presbyterian Church (and who
is memorialized on one of the stained glass windows in the sanctuary). Our
Elizabeth Cator was the wife of a mariner, Captain Levin Cator. The 1860
census shows that they shared a home with the family of William Diggs, another
mariner. The combined household of 8 individuals had a net personal estate
of only $1600. In contract, there was a different Elizabeth Cator also residing
in Ward 15. The latter Elizabeth Cator, with her husband John, listed a net
estate worth of $10,000, more consistent with the ownership of multiple enslaved
individuals. It is worth noting that Captain Levin Cator later commanded a
Federal (i.e. Union) transport during the Civil War.9
There is also a W. W. Watson on the slave schedule and an Elizabeth Watson
on the church roll. While there was a household in the 15th Ward of Baltimore
City that included both a William W. Watson and an Elizabeth Watson in
it, Watson was not an uncommon name, and the church roll lists Elizabeth as
‘Mrs. Elizabeth Watson,’ who joined the church later, in 1885, whereas the
former Elizabeth Watson was William W. Watson’s sister (i.e. Watson was her
maiden name). As such, we do not believe these to be the same individual.

2.3 Evidence of Ownership of Enslaved People by Mem-

bers of the Committee on the South Presbyterian
Church Edifice
There is, however, more compelling evidence of ownership over enslaved peo-
ple among the “large and influential committee”10 comprised of members from
9 “Mrs. Elizabeth Barclay Cator (obituary),” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 7, 22 November

1898.
10 “The Southern Presbyterian Church,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 1, 20 November 1854.

4
First, Central, Fifth, Westminster, Franklin Street, and South Presbyterian
Churches, that was formed for the building of the South Presbyterian Church
edifice.
John Watchman, while evidently not appearing on the church rolls, served on
the committee for founding the church as a representative for South Presbyterian
Church itself. There is a John Watchman, an engineer aged 60 with a net estate
of $12,000, who resided in the 15th Ward where South Presbyterian was found.
He is the only John Watchman recorded in the 1850 census and is therefore
likely the same individual who owned two enslaved persons, a 50 year old male
and a 25 year old female, per the 1850 Slave Schedule.
Likewise, there was a John Grindall who served on the committee. There is a
John T. Grindall who appears immediately after John Watchman in the census
(indicating that they were neighbors), with a family of six and a profession of
clerk. No estate worth is listed in the 1850 census, but the 1860 census lists him
as a master carpenter with an estate valued at $20,000 and a family of seven,
plus a 12 year old (white) girl named Ann Duff, presumably a servant. John
T. Grindall is listed in the 1850 Slave Schedule as owning two individuals, a 12
year old girl and a 30 year old woman, and in the 1860 Slave Schedule of owning
a 25 year old woman, possibly the same individual as the younger in 1850.
William W. Spence, who repre-
sented the First Presbyterian Church
on the committee is listed in the ' &: IC O 111':\\'ARD,-GEORGE 111.U'l\T;- a val~
~ •> mulatto bny ofnL011t 1:, i·cu1·s of 3J!''', and about
1860 census as a merchant originally !,t.-l'li11 hei:;::ht, 1Jl•lone111e to the ,-;nbscrilmr, ll·ft hii rrsi-
dl·11ce on th(H!\"t"Uini::of'J'uesday, the •,!3d inst .• aml f1a~ not
from Scotland with an estate valued 1in.cc bl'cn hear•I of. lfo wor1..• n t:iltaw hat, ~ray jackt•t
i,:.tript•d gray paut.,amt stout sllQ~s. lb! is n•n intdli)lent
1

at $10,000, a family of seven, and i0mt311i«.•lt, n.•ad~ ,voll anc.l writcio n littlc-. 'I'hC ab~wc 1·c·
irar ,;·1ll lm pi.lit! upon his a111>r~hr1!::1io11 anti rrturu. ·
. w_,. w. _:,;p~;NcE,
an extensive household staff. The jr 27 No. :., L('\:Ul~lou ~trc-ct.
free individuals on the staff were an
Irish seamstress, two Mulatto11 wait-
ers, and two Black women, employed Figure 2: Advertisement from a W.
as a cook and chamber maid. The W. Spence offering a $50 reward for the
1850 slave schedule includes a 20 year return of an enslaved Mulatto who had
old Mulatto man, most likely George escaped.
Blunt, who attempted to escape on
multiple occasions according to newspaper advertisements. (See Fig. 2.)
John H. Done, Esqr. representing Central Presbyterian is potentially the
same John H. Done of Princess Anne, Somerset, Maryland, who is listed as
a lawyer in the 1850 Census with an estate valued at $3500. The 1850 Slave
Schedule lists John H. Done as owning five enslaved people.
J. Henry Kaufman, the first pastor of Light Street Presbyterian, departed
the church for the South in 1860 and was in Georgia during the Civil War (see
Section 3). While there is no evidence that he ever owned enslaved people, by
1870 when he had again relocated to Baltimore, he had two Black servants, a
40 year old woman named Harriet Jackson and a 12 year old Black girl named
Leah Myers, based on 1870 US Census records.
11 Mulatto was an official census racial category for the 1850 and 1860 census.

5
Figure 3: Entries in the records of the Light Street Presbyterian Church show-
ing the baptism of William James Hooper, a 7 month old Black baby, on De-
cember 13, 1859 (left) and the marriage of Thomas J. Baldwin and Helen C.
Sampman, a Black couple, on December 25, 1879 (right).

2.4 Black Presbyterians in Mid-19th Century Maryland

There were both enslaved and free Black Baltimoreans among the membership
of the Baltimore Presbytery churches in the mid-1800s. Smith writes, “Mission
schools and Bible classes were established among the colored people in different
sections of the city, and devoted teachers were always found to serve them. The
names of colored members were found on all our church rolls. They worshiped
with the white congregations and were seen in them all seated on back seats or
in the gallery.”12
While we have found no evidence of Black members in the early rolls of our
church (given the norms of the time, it is likely that their race would be noted if
there had been), we do have records of at least one baptism, of William James
Hooper, aged 7 months, on December 13, 1859, and one marriage, between
Thomas J. Baldwin and Helen C. Sampman, on December 25, 1879. In both
cases, we are confident of the race of the individuals because it is explicitly
indicated in the church records, as shown in Fig. 3.
As described in the quote above, the standard practice of the time among
Presbyterian churches was to racially segregate space within the sanctuary, but
Black and white Presbyterians worshipped and conducted the business of the
church together. While we have no records of Black membership in the Light
Street Church until nearly a hundred years later, there are examples of Black
Presbyterians within the space of our church from its earliest days. For ex-
ample, Rev. R. B. Johns, having received a call from the Madison Avenue
Presbyterian Church, was received after examination as a member of the Bal-
12 Joseph T. Smith, Eighty Years: Embracing a History of Presbyterianism in Baltimore,

Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1899.

6
timore Presbytery during a Presbytery meeting held in the South Presbyterian
Church on 9 April 1867.13

3 Baltimore and the Civil War

The period of church expansion that had marked the mid-19th century for the
Baltimore Presbytery ended with the advent of the Civil War, which saw the
Presbyterian Church divided between North and South, as was the case with
other Protestant denominations.
The division was especially clear in the 73rd General Assembly,14 which took
place in Philadelphia, May 1861. It was at that meeting where Rev. Gardiner
Spring of New York introduced what came to be known as the “Spring Resolu-
tions,” which included, as amended, the following: “Resolved, That this General
Assembly, in the spirit of that Christian patriotism which the Scriptures enjoin,
and which has always characterized this Church, do hereby acknowledge and de-
clare our obligations to promote and perpetuate, so far as in us lies, the integrity
of these United States, and to strengthen, uphold, and encourage the Federal
Government in the exercise of all its functions under our noble Constitution; and
to this Constitution in all its provisions, requirements, and principles, we pro-
fess our unabated loyalty.”15 The commissioners from the Baltimore Presbytery
voted against the Spring Resolutions and joined in a protest motion made by
Dr. Charles Hodge, a pastor from the New Brunswick Presbytery.
Some in the Presbytery evidently felt more strongly. The first pastor of the
South Presbyterian Church, Rev. J. Henry Kaufman, resigned his position in the
Fall of 1860. Leaving the congregation on apparently good terms (he delivered
the charges to the pastor and congregation at the installation of his successor,
Rev. J. H. Potter16 ), he headed south to Georgia, where he became pastor to the
Madison and Monticello churches of the Hopewell Presbytery from 1860 to 1862
and later to a church in Rome, Georgia, in the Cherokee Presbytery, from 1863
to 1864.17 He appears to have remained in Rome until it was occupied by Union
soldiers. While it is not clear that he was pastor at the First Presbyterian Church
of Rome (there were multiple churches there), the website of that church18
indicates that their church was turned into a food storehouse by Union troops,
while the wood from their pews was used for the construction of stables for
13 “The Baltimore Presbytery,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 1, 12 April 1867.
14 Rev. John C. Backus of the Baltimore Presbytery, who chaired the Committee on the
South Presbyterian Church Edifice and laid the cornerstone of our church, was the moderator
of this General Assembly.
15 Minutes of the 73rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States

of America, Seventh Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 1861.

16 “Installation Service at the South Presbyterian Church,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 1, 15

October 1860.
17 Statistical Report, Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the

Confederate States of America, 1861; Rev. James Stacy, A History of the Presbyterian Church
in Georgia, 1912; Willard E. Wight “The Diary of the Reverend Charles S. Vedder, May-July,
1861.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 39, 68-90, 1955.
18 http://www.fpcrome.org/about/history/

7
 100 35 . 1,500
44 ''" 11

70 . 10 800

40
50 . ..
20 30 13
3
l 7. ..... ;~~1
so

T I

. ...1.. ··· ···.I ml

Figure 4: Statistical report from the Minutes of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America showing J. Henry
Kaufman as pastor of the churches in Madison and Monticello, Hopewell Pres-
bytery, Georgia.

horses and a pontoon bridge to cross the river. Rev. Kaufman at this point
returned to the Baltimore Presbytery, and he was installed pastor of the Govane
chapel in Govanstown December of the following year.
These examples do not, however, mean that Baltimore was overwhelmingly
pro-secessionist, of course. Rather, Rev. Smith describes a situation in which
most citizens were initially aligned with the Union. However, as Maryland was
a border State, “inhabitants were, in almost equal numbers, from both sections,
the North and the South” such that “Families were divided, sons against fathers,
and wives against husbands, and the peace of many a family was utterly wrecked.
Lifelong friendships were suddenly sundered,” “Mutual confidence, sometimes
among the most devoted friends, was gone, and an atmosphere of suspicion
enveloped the city,” and “The dividing line ran through sessions and deacons
and trustees and congregations, and arrayed them in opposing ranks.” 19
Throughout the PCUSA, there were efforts made by some to retain church
unity by maintaining that the war was a political matter and not within the
domain of the church (indeed, this was substance of Dr. Hodge’s protest to the
Spring Resolutions), including within the Baltimore Presbytery: “Dr. Backus
while having decided convictions as to patriotic duty which he did not hesitate
to express frankly on all proper occasions, was also strongly of the opinion that
19 Joseph T. Smith, Eighty Years: Embracing a History of Presbyterianism in Baltimore,

Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1899.

8
only the things of Caesar should be rendered unto him and all the things of God
should be rendered unto him alone, and therefore there could be no justification
for allowing political differences to become the subject of discord, and division
in religious matters; and he had displayed such wisdom, tact, firmness and
sanctified common sense in preventing party spirit from entering as a disturbing
element into the conduct of religious worship in his own congregation as to mark
him for a shining illustration of that course which the best and wisest leaders
of the PC deemed it proper for that body to pursue in those troublous times.”
20
Within this context, it is unsurprising that we were able to find no reference
made to the war within our church records. Nevertheless, divisions continued
into the General Assemblies of 1866 and 1867, and two churches withdrew from
the Baltimore Presbytery.

4 Contributions to the Board of Missions for

Freedmen
Following the Civil War, in the years
that came be known as Reconstruc-
tion in the South, the PCUSA es-
tablished the Board of Missions for
Freedmen to educate Black youth in
the South and especially to “equip
and maintain training schools and to
train leaders most efficiently for the
Negro community.” While racial jus-
tice does not appear to have been a
core mission of Light Street Church
in the postwar or Jim Crow era, the
statistical reports that exist in the
church records, such as that shown in
Figure 5, indicate that it heeded the
call from the denomination and from
the Baltimore Synod to support the
Board of Missions for Freedmen in its
Figure 5: Example of a statistical re-
end of year contributions. These con-
port from the Minutes of Light Street
tributions were never large (The $13
Presbyterian Church, in this case from
shown in Figure 5 would be approxi-
the year 1900, showing a contribution of
mately $400 in modern US currency),
$13 to the Board of Missions for Freed-
but they were fairly consistent.21
men, among others.
These funds were used to support
schools such as Harbison Agricultural
20 William Reynolds, A brief history of the First Presbyterian church of Baltimore, 1913.
21 Statistical
reports which are specifically itemized show such contributions in 1876, 1885,
1892, 1894, 1895, 1898-1902, 1909, 1910, and 1918.

9
College in Irmo, South Carolina, described by the 1919 General Assembly as
“one of the best equipped educational systems possessed by any branch of the
[C]hurch with 480 trained teachers, 127 schools and 17,00 students.”22 This
was not a minor mission, either. The $250,000 raised by the Board of Missions
for Freedman in 1918 would be equivalent to $4.7M in 2020. The Board of
Missions for Freedmen was eventually folded into the Board of Home Missions,
a predecessor of the modern Presbyterian Mission Agency.
There was at least one occasion on which Light Street Church took up a
special collection at the behest of the Committee on Freedmen, on November
20, 1895. The collection was for the benefit of the Reverend Jeremiah B. Swann
of Annapolis, pastor of the Zion and Mill Run Churches. Pastor Swann had
previously been enslaved in Tennessee and, following the Civil War, became a
school teacher, traveling to Maryland in 1869. He was ordained by the Baltimore
Presbytery July 27, 1884, which was notable at the time because it was rare
for someone with no formal education to pass examination for ordination. His
first church, Zion, was burned before its completion, evidently through an act
of arson. Rev. Swann remained an active member of the Baltimore Presbytery
throughout his career, which lasted at least into 1919.23

5 LSPC’s Racial History in the 20th Century

Although Light Street Church does not appear to have played a substantive role
in racial justice in the early 20th century, it did play a prominent one in the civic
life of South Baltimore overall. Pastor Kinley McMillan of our church appears
to have been a public figure, making addresses, for example, at the opening
of a new public playground in 1895.24 Light Street also hosted a speech by
a Republican candidate for mayor in 1919, William Broening, who went on
to win the election.25 The church played a prominent role in the temperance
movement, hosting special services for the Anti-Saloon League,26 and in fighting
unemployment in South Baltimore.
Even as the church took up other domestic missions, it took an active interest
in peoples from around the world, and especially in the state of Christianity in
different countries. This is made evident by frequent visits and public lectures
by visitors and representatives from (or missionaries to) places such as Arabia,
22 Kristen Gaydos, “A Look Back at the General Assemblies in Saint Louis,”, 2018; for

more about Harbison Agricultural College, visit the Harbison Agricultural College Photograph
Collection.
23 “Colored Presbyterian Minister,” The Evening Capital (Annapolis), 8 July 1884; “Burn-

ing of a Church at West River,” The Evening Capital (Annapolis), 18 November 1885; “Aged
Colored Man Been Preacher and Teacher 50 Years,” The Evening Capital (Annapolis), 3
March 1919.
24 “Opening of the New Public Playground,” The Baltimore Sun, 7 May 1895.
25 The Baltimore Sun, 5 April 1919.
26 See e.g. “Anti-Saloon League Services,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 10, 20 January 1902;

“Rev. H. W. Miller Emphatic,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 7, 27 January 1908; “‘Dry’ Forces
Open Fire,” The Baltimore Sun, pg. 4, 16 June 1916.

10
Figure 6: An artist’s rendition of one of several interstate highway plans that
would have connected I-95 to an East West Expressway and the Jones Falls
Expressway.

Germany, and China.27 The church took up a collection for relief for Armenian
and Syrian refugees following the Armenian genocide in 1917. It also hosted
at least one series of talks on Christianity in different racial talks, including
“The Value of Christianity to the Negro” by Prof. Howard Cornish of Morgan
College, “What Christianity Confers on the Jews” by Rev. Aaron Kligerman
of the Emmanuel Neighborhood House, and “The Chinese Christian” by Miss
Dorothy Hon, who was a Chinese immigrant herself.28

5.1 Community Organizing in South Baltimore

By the time the Civil Rights era came around, Light Street Church was fading.
After several rapid turnovers in the pulpit, there was no pastor from 1964 on,
and by the time the Presbytery hired Pastor David Pollitt in 1978, the ceil-
ing was in danger of collapsing, and the 54 remaining members were mostly
elderly. However, there was a lot going on in South Baltimore, and that sets an
important stage for the subsequent years.
27 see e.g. “An Evening with the Orientals,” The Baltimore Sun, 15 February 1876; “Lec-

turers from Arabia,” The Baltimore Sun, 2 November 1891; “Armenian Sympathizers,” The
Baltimore Sun, 12 December 1895; On Cuba: “Dr. Odell To Speak,” The Baltimore Sun,
27 October 1934; “German Exile To Speak,” The Baltimore Sun, 14 January 1939; “Chinese
Cleric To Speak,” The Baltimore Sun, 6 March 1939;“Dr. Peter Y. F. Shih,” The Baltimore
Sun, 10 May 1947.
28 “To Speak on Racial Groups,” The Baltimore Sun, 12 June 1937.

11
 In the late 50s and into the 60s and 70s, several interstate highway plans
were considered that would have connected I-95 through Baltimore City, for
example to an East West Expressway by running over Federal Hill and across
the harbor as shown in Figure 6, requiring the demolition of Light Street Church;
these plans were challenged by Baltimoreans for over twenty years. While Locust
Point and Federal Hill successfully escaped the impact of highway planning, city
purchases of houses in Sharp-Leadenhall in 1967 (mostly inhabited by Black and
Italian families) reduced the Black population in South Baltimore from 4000 to
800 people. The South Baltimore Community Council, born out of the South
Baltimore Ministerial Association in 1967, was a direct result of the issuance of
these condemnation renderances without community input.
Mildred Moon, for whom the Hamburg Street bridge is now named, was one
of the people evicted from Hill St. She moved to Ostend St. and continued
to fight ‘the road’ as a member of the Community Council, becoming director
when Sharp-Leadenhall was designated an urban renewal area. The Solo Gibbs
park was established to replace a playground that was consumed by construc-
tion of I-395. Two schools were also demolished, replaced by Sharp-Leadenhall
Elementary, which has also now closed. Its repurposing as a new recreation
center has been proposed as part of the master plan for renovation and renewal
of the Solo Gibbs park.29
By the time the Coalition of Peninsula Organizations, or COPO, (of which
Light Street Church was later a member, and on the board of which Pastor
Pollitt served) formed, nothing could be done for the residents who had al-
ready been evicted in Sharp-Leadenhall, but the Sharp-Leadenahll Planning
Committee was a founding member. COPO had some successes working with
Sharp-Leadenhall, for example when the city tried to shut down the Sharp Lead-
enhall Planning Committee Headquarters for zoning violation30 or in December
1978, when the mayor tried to cut funding for COPO’s housing program over
its opposition to a Rouse development in the Inner Harbor. In the latter case,
escaping the cuts saved the job of Vera Poole, who was working with COPO to
help Sharp-Leadenhall residents bring housing concerns to the city and to help
renters become homeowners.31

5.2 South Baltimore Demographics and LSPC

The Baltimore Sun reported32 Pastor Pollitt’s arrival as, in effect, a part of gen-
trification, stating: “The bricks-and-mortar rebirth of South Baltimore undeni-
ably played a part in the spiritual rebirth of Light Street Presbyterian Church.
Demographics do count.” But he disagreed, describing the Light Street Church
29 “SoloGibbs Park Master Plan,” Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, 17 February 2020.
30 According to a 16 March 1977 article in The Baltimore Sun, Mildred Moon and her
secretary used a house as a front office for the Planning Committee to help refer residents to
government services.
31 “Mayor Vows Pay for 2 Who Aid Tenants,” The Evening Sun, Baltimore, p. 54, 21

December 1978.
32 “Demographics helped spring rebirth of Light Street Church,” The Baltimore Sun, p. 26,

11 April 1982.

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of the early 80s as “still very much a blue-collar one, and proudly so, with just
enough infusion of professional people from the ‘trendy’ restored blocks to the
north, east and west to make it more interesting.” He saw the Otterbein restora-
tion area as a source of visitors, but not the driving source of membership for
the church.
At the time, there was one Black member of the congregation, the earliest
recorded Black member of whom we are aware: Doris Graham came to the
church from Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in 1977, participated in the choir,
became an Elder, and later chaired the Personnel Committee. Pollitt felt that
the demographics of a changing South Baltimore offered little opportunity for
much of an increase in racial integration, and instead focused on what he called
“cultural integration” of what he saw as three distinct groups of people in the
congregation: longtime residents, who were stable, generally blue-collar workers;
Appalachian whites, who were being displaced; and higher-income, generally
better-educated “newcomers.” While the initial response from the congregation
to his “issue-oriented” programs was, in his words, “not overwhelming,” Light
Street Church did, as mentioned above, eventually join and become active in
COPO.
The latter part of the 20th century saw a revitalization of Light Street’s
mission in South Baltimore, with its support for repurposing the old Southern
High School for affordable housing, for South Baltimore Emergency Relief with
its soup kitchen, active opposition to over-development of the Inner Harbor,
and of course, the Light Street Housing Corporation.33 While none of these
activities were explicitly motivated by a racial justice mission, they did serve
Black South Baltimoreans as well as white ones, especially in the context of Light
Street’s participation with COPO. BUILD was formed around 1977 by a group
of Catholic priests and Black Protestant Pastors, but was resisted by Catholic
parishes in South Baltimore, leading to its relative under-representation in South
Baltimore today34 While Light Street considered joining BUILD in early 90s, it
not ultimately do so until 2019.

6 Conclusion
In summary, South Presbyterian Church, as Light Street was called when it was
founded, does not appear to have had members on its rolls who enslaved people,
but the church likely did benefit from the wealth of owners of enslaved people
in the broader Presbytery. While there were no Black members indicated in
the early church rolls, we are aware of at least one Black infant baptized in the
33 see e.g. “Recreation, Housing Urged For Southern,” The Baltimore Sun, 22 August 1978;

“Housing-recreation plan OK’d,” The Baltimore Sun, 3 March 1979; “Property speculation
angers South Baltimore,” The Baltimore Sun, 3 May 1979; “Learning about ‘the new poor’,”
The Baltimore Sun, 7 February 1983; “Residents to discuss Key Highway proposal,” The
Baltimore Sun, 15 May 1990; “The home that love built,” The Baltimore Sun, 14 April 1986;
and “Group practices what it preaches,” The Baltimore Sun, 17 September 1990.
34 “Catholic Leaders’ Attempt to Organize Coalition Meets Opposition,” The Evening Sun,

Baltimore, p. 27, 12 December 1977.

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church in 1859, as well as the wedding of a Black couple in 1879. As was the
case with much of Baltimore, the church likely had individuals with sympathies
on both sides of the Civil War, and the first pastor, J. Henry Kaufman, even
became a pastor in the PCCSA. Following the war, Light Street Church made
regular contributions to the Board of Missions for Freedman and hosted guest
speakers from around the world and on the intersection of the Christian faith
with diverse nationalities and ethnicities. Nevertheless, the church does not
appear to have had a specific focus on racial justice through the Jim Crow era
and into the Civil Rights era, when the church nearly failed. As the church
entered its second century, it became more active in community organizing and
in turn became a more diverse congregation. The long history of our church
and its neighborhood in South Baltimore both contextualizes and motivates
our modern commitment to community organizing and racial justice.

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