The legacy of Rev. Robert Hickman lived on Sunday at Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul, 150 years after he founded Minnesota’s first black church.
At a worship service that focused on Pilgrim Baptist’s history, Dr. George Wesley Waddles told the congregation that the church made it to its 150th anniversary with the grace of God. He also told the full house that the gifts of each member aren’t fully used until they’re brought to church.
Those high-energy gifts were on display Sunday as the choir, musicians and dancers brought the congregation to its feet.
“I praise God for your celebrative spirit,” said Waddles, who was visiting from Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. He doesn’t typically leave his church on a
Hickman escaped from slavery in Missouri, was ordained as a Baptist minister and founded Pilgrim Baptist in 1863. For decades, the church has been a cornerstone in its neighborhood, off Dale Street near Interstate 94.
Among those in attendance Sunday was Sharon Harper, a great-great-granddaughter of Robert Hickman.
To Harper, Hickman’s legacy is tied up in the freedom he sought by escaping slavery and coming north, and the people he brought with him. When he decided to be a minister, she said, “it must have been a strong call,” because Hickman had to study for three years after arriving in the north
The family’s emphasis on hard work and education carried out in later generations, too, as John Hickman — Harper’s grandfather — was the first person of color to graduate from William Mitchell College of Law, she said.
When she was growing up in the neighborhood she often came to Pilgrim Baptist for children’s activities, she said. In 1960, the construction of Interstate 94 took her family’s home on St. Anthony Avenue. The construction project tore through the neighborhood and many people were forced to move, but the church proved resilient.
Pilgrim Baptist was led by the Rev. Lee Ward Harris from 1922 to 1938. Nate Galloway, a grandson of Harris, has been a member of the church for 53 years.
Galloway, who was in attendance Sunday, remembers his grandfather working “to make the church a beacon of hope for equal rights,” he said. In the 1920s, Rev. Harris was also involved in getting the church built at its current location, 732 West Central Avenue.
“All the ministers (at Pilgrim Baptist) have been good at making sure their community had a voice,” he said.
The Rev. Floyd Massey, who was pastor at Pilgrim Baptist from 1944 to 1965, pushed to make sure that when the I-94 freeway did cut through the Rondo neighborhood, the interstate would be dug out so that it wouldn’t be at street level, said Galloway, a retired St. Paul public school teacher.
The church also has a long history of community involvement, including opening the Benjamin E. Mays School in the 1970s, which later became part of the St. Paul Public Schools.
Going back much further, representatives from the First Baptist Church in St. Paul were at Sunday’s service, bringing with them an 1864 membership book for their church, which contained Rev. Hickman’s name.
Sunday’s service also was a source of pride for George Okpara, who recently helped raise money to repair Pilgrim Baptist’s pipe organ, which was played Sunday by Kim Crisler. The organ had been out of service for several years, but the repairs made it operable.
The organ needs more mechanical work to become fully functional, and Okpara is still raising money, he said.
“When you’re doing the work of God,” he said, it’s easy to find the needed inspiration for the project.
John Welbes can be reached at 651-228-2175.
Hickman, Robert T. (1831-1900)
Robert Thomas Hickman, born enslaved in Missouri in 1831, is most noted for the group of slaves including his wife and young son, whom he led to freedom in Minnesota in 1863, and helping to establish the first African American church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hickman was born and reared near Boone, Missouri. At a young adult Hickman worked near Boone as a rail splitter. He was, however, allowed by his owner to learn to read and write. Hickman also became a slave preacher for the people held in bondage in the area.
In 1863 Hickman led a group of Boone County slaves to their freedom. Hickman and other fugitive slaves constructed a crude raft which they hoped would take them to freedom. When Hickman and 75 black men, women and children were discovered adrift near Jefferson, Missouri, they were rescued and towed up river to St. Paul, Minnesota by the steamboat “Northerner.” The “contrabands” arrived in St. Paul on May 5, 1863.
A second group of Missouri fugitive slaves reached St. Paul ten days later under the protective custody of Chaplain J.D. White and escorted by Company C of the 27th Iowa Regiment. Although both groups were initially harassed by Irish dock workers in St. Paul, the men quickly found work as teamsters and laborers.
As the families settled into their new lives in Minnesota, Rev. Hickman sought a place of worship for these newcomers who called themselves “Pilgrims.” After holding services in individual homes in St. Paul, in November, 1863 they succeeded in renting a room in a downtown concert hall. In January 1864, Rev. Hickman and the Pilgrims received mission status from the First Baptist Church of St. Paul. On November 15, 1866, Rev. Robert Hickman and the other migrants formally organized Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul. They celebrated the creation of the church with a baptismal service on the shores of the Mississippi River.
Despite his crucial role in getting the settlers to Minnesota and establishing Pilgrim Baptist Church, Hickman was not licensed to preach by the Baptist Church. Thus between 1866 and 1877 two white ministers, William Norris and Andrew Torbert, led Pilgrim Baptist. Eventually licensed to preach in 1874 and ordained the following year, Hickman became the congregation’s official minister in 1878. Rev. Robert Hickman continued to lead the church until his retirement in 1886. Robert Thomas Hickman died in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 6, 1900.
Sources:
Pilgrim Baptist Church Website, https://www.pilgrimbaptistchurch.or/history.htm; David Vassar Taylor, “The Blacks” in June D. Holmquest, They Chose Minnesota: a Survey of the State’s Ethnic Groups (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press 1982).
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