[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 13, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          RECOGNITION OF MT. ZION BAPTIST CHURCH'S 100TH YEAR

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                            HON. FRED UPTON

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 13, 2022

  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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