The NACCC’s Mission and Outreach Ministry Council’s recent Freedom Journey trip to Greenville, SC, was a deeply enriching experience that allowed participants to explore and learn about African American history, culture, and faith.

The journey began at the Greenville, SC, airport on Friday, March 13th, as participants arrived at the location of the New Year’s Day March, the first large-scale demonstration of the civil rights movement in South Carolina, in which 1,000 individuals protested the removal of Jackie Robinson from the airport’s “white waiting area.”

On Saturday, the group shared an amazing day with Brenda Lee Pryce, the first Black female state legislator in South Carolina and author of North of Main. Brenda engaged the group by sharing with them the history of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, which was organized during the year of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Mabel Owens hosted the Freedom Journey group on Sunday, sharing her family’s story of resilience when their farm was threatened by the KKK and, in retaliation for the family’s decision to hold their ground, the Soapstone Baptist Church and a home owned by the Owens family were burned.

On Monday, the group visited Ft. Hill at Clemson University, a plantation owned by John C Calhoun, US Vice President under Andrew Jackson, which had employed several slaves who were buried without markers. Only recently was that addressed. They also explored Oberlin Faith Cabin Library, built to serve rural African Americans during segregation, which received many of its books from Congregationalists at Oberlin College in the 1940s. They group rounded out the day with a visit to The Retreat Rosenwald School, significant for its role in African American public education during the first half of the twentieth century.

The Freedom Journey trip to Greenville, SC, was a great success, providing participants with a profound and enriching experience that deepened their understanding of African American history, culture, and faith, highlighting the enduring legacy of resilience, community, and justice.