Faith Over Fear, Love Over Hate: Ebenezer Baptist Church - 50 Years Later After Church Shooting

As a storyteller, writer and speech coach, you can watch the videos (multiple versions) of the Litany Readers and some of the statements from survivors and panelists on Sunday, June 30, 2024. Ebenezer Baptist Church paused to pray on 50 years to the date after the tragic church shooting inside Heritage Sanctuary. We stand as a congregation to give testimony of our faith and our God.
As a church family and community, we paused for the loving memory of these families:
Mrs. Alberta Williams King “Mama King”
Deacon Edward Anderson Boykin
Trustee Jimmie Turner Mitchell (Survived her gun shots on June 30, 1974)
I had the honor of curating the litany with my college professor and mentor as a writer, Dr. Gloria Wade-Gayles, Professor Emerita from Spelman College.
Iuyana Miller captured the full video of the students and congregation presenting “A Litany of Faith & Love.” It is uplifting to listen and hear the words of the Leaders and Congregation and collective voices in Heritage Ministry.
I also share my close-up video clip of the students and family member delivering the words of the litany.
Matthew, Chloe, Gregory, Ivy, and Zoe are the young griots, storytellers and witnesses of June 30, 2024. They were touched by the stories of the survivors of the church shooting 50 years ago. They learned and experienced history and heard from policymakers to address gun violence and to teach Dr. King’s principles of nonviolence and love
Thank God for the acknowledgement of our church history and for the strength and richness to stand in the gap
to learn and to relay information to the next generations.
I strongly believe that our church history is our responsibility to curate and to preserve. I will not and we cannot allow the miseducation of accurate history and American history to get entangled.
Like Mrs. Opal Lee in championing Juneteenth, we must champion and curate our church history to pass it to our congregation, children, children’s children, historians, and researchers.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Connie F. Smith-Lindsey
Storyteller & Creative Director