Recognition of Mt. Zion Baptist Church's 100th Year

Floor Speech

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Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Mt. Zion Baptist Church for 100 years in the Kalamazoo community.

This church--one of the first to be built by African Americans for African Americans in Kalamazoo--has been a pillar of the city for a century now after it was founded by Reverend Yale H. Putney in a storefront on Main Street. Only a few years after its founding, the growing church relocated to a one-room schoolhouse on East Ransom Street and next moved into a vacated church in 1945 on the corner of North Edwards and Parsons Streets. Finally, the congregation built their home on then-Chestnut Street in 1979, where it remains to this day. Chestnut Street was later renamed Roberson Street in 1980 to honor former pastors B.A. and A.E. Roberson.

Under each of these roofs, Mt. Zion Baptist Church established a place of worship and built a Christ-like community around it. Mt. Zion always has offered a helping hand to our city, recently offering their church to double as a COVID-19 vaccination site under the leadership of Reverend Addis Moore. As always, the Church saw a need, and met it. Reverend Moore has said in the past that a church's purpose in the African American community is to be ``the lifeline of that community, where you find everything you need.'' I thank Reverend Moore for his servant's heart and strong leadership that has brought Mt. Zion to 100 years of service.

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