News and Views

Elinor Thompson of Franklin UMC in Churchton wanted so badly for her grandmother to come down for Grandfather’s Day when she was in kindergarten decades ago.

Thompson didn’t know her grandfather, so her grandmother eventually obliged. She sat down with the young Thompson to talk about their family history, “who we were and where we are going,” Thompson said.

 From then on, a spark lit a fire in Thompson.

While other kids played kickball or hopscotch, she spent time in cemeteries. At first glance, that might seem odd for a kid to spend their time there. But what was once a spark of interest in her family history soon became a wildfire for Thompson. Those efforts yielded some pretty amazing discoveries.

“From that time, researching my family history was very important to me,” Thompson said. “I found that I am one of the granddaughters of none other than the first secretary who started the old Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. His name was Benjamin Brown, born in Queen Anne's County. 

Eventually, Thompson started picking up old church records from anywhere she could, whether bookstores, dumpsters or antique shops. Sometimes folks would call her to pick up church documents that they just didn’t want — or have space to keep.

It may come as no surprise, then, that Thompson won the African American Methodist Heritage Center’s Forrest C. Stith Grant for 2023; the center works to preserve and promote African American Methodist history, while the grant focuses on the presentation of the history of African American congregations.

Thompson’s presentation — “Saving Sacred Spaces and Places in African American Church Communities” — focuses on how churches for African Americans, especially during and in the early days of post-slavery, served as the core of communities.

Thompson’s presentation was one of 14 from across the United States and Nigeria.

“It is important for us to tell these stories to document our history, especially with the churches, because that's all African Americans had,” Thompson said of her project.

“So we came together at different sacred spaces and places that we no longer visibly see, but I found spaces through the church communities and the churches,” Thompson added.

Thompson has big aspirations for her project, particularly that it can be used across generations. She also believed the book carries great importance in the current social climate, given battles over what books should be read — or at least accessible — in schools.

“I want to tell that story through the communities through the entire church communities because this is something we need,” she said. “They've taken books out of African American histories from out of the school curriculum.”

According to PEN America, a human rights and free expression advocacy organization, more than 30 percent of the books banned in the 2022-2023 school year dealt with topics of race, racism or featured characters of color.

Titles of books banned from classrooms span classic fiction (“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neal Hurston and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison) to nonfiction works (“Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall and “The 1619 Project” by Nikole Hannah-Jones).

The namesake of the grant, though, had high hopes for Thompson and her efforts. Bishop Forrest Stith (retired) said the project would help further the mission of the center.

“When the Heritage Center was conceived over twenty years ago, we dreamed of the day when every African American United Methodist congregation would find creative ways to celebrate, preserve and secure its rich legacy and story,” Stith said in the center’s announcement. “This grant is a step in that direction.”

“Much of the historical interconnections lie in sacred spaces and places of African American churches and cemeteries. This project poses a rate opportunity to confirm and consolidate a rich collaborative history before it is lost forever,” Thompson added in the same statement.

In the secular world, Thompson serves on the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture. She is now in her second term.