French St., which used to be the “Harlem of Wilmington:”

August Quarterly, French Street, Wilmington, Delaware: Back in the day.

 The Big Quarterly video report...

(After you watch the video a couple times, pause it at 2:21 and read the newspaper article there. The more things change…)(Scroll down to the bottom for a link to another informative video.)

Peter Spencer: Truly one of our country’s founding fathers.

Due to the founding Quakers’ anti-slavery beliefs, Wilmington was a key stop on the Underground Railroad, and Wilmington’s August Quarterly is the oldest continuously celebrated African American Festival in the nation. On condition that they return at the end of the weekend, slaves were permitted to gather once a year to celebrate and worship free from discrimination. However, Delaware was also the last Union state to ban slavery, and it voted against the Amendments that freed the slaves.

Delaware is also home to most of the country’s corporations due to the founding Quakers’ liberal business laws. More than 300,000 corporations, including half of the Fortune 500, incorporate in Delaware, though they don’t have to bother to relocate there. It further enticed the banking industry to relocate within its borders by offering tax breaks and rigging its laws governing how much interest a bank can charge. Eight of the ten largest credit-card firms in the country operate within Delaware. In the meantime, personal bankruptcy nationwide rose sevenfold.

We must put flesh on our words

(FYI, Methodism and social justice.)

…But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream…(Amos 5:21, 23-24).

Sermons preached in words and sermons preached through deeds are both necessary for a holistic ministry of social justice and healing…From Atlanta to Accra and from Harlem to Haiti, the diseases and despair caused by poverty are an attack against God, since God has placed the divine image in every person, regardless of income.

Elwood Palmer Cooper, 838 French St. (colored). Helper on miller’s wagon. 7 years of age. Helper for one year. Carries bags of flour, weighing 25 pounds, from wagon to stores. Receives 25 cents per week. Money not needed at home. Wants money to spend. Investigator, Edward F. Brown. Location: Wilmington, Delaware

James Morgan, 119 French St. Newsboy. 9 years of age. Selling newspaper 4 years. Average earnings 50 cents per week. Selling papers own choice. Don’t smoke. Visits saloons. Works 6 hours per day. Investigator, Edward F. Brown. Location: Wilmington, Delaware

Emma Strauss House, 625 French Street, Wilmington, New Castle County, DE, Aug. 27, 1936 VIEW FROM FRENCH STREET

Samuel Newlin Houses, 423-425 French Street, Wilmington, New Castle County, DE Aug. 27, 1936 VIEW FROM NORTH EAST

16mm film by Oliver Franklin and Marc Pevar. “Peter Spencer: The Lasting Connection,” commemorates the Big August Quarterly

The film explores the role of the African American church from its founding through the modern era, while the cultural environment changed, along with the Underground Railroad, which operated in Wilmington, Delaware at the time when Peter Spencer founded his church, supported by the Society of Friends, or Quakers, who themselves had underground railroad networks Wilmington DE and also in nearby Pennsylvania.