Harvest Ministries hosts Black History Month service

WADESBORO — Harvest Ministries celebrated Black History Month with their annual service.

The theme was “Life, Love, Legacy,” and featured music, motivational speakers, and history and video presentations.

History teacher and Harvest member Kevin Adams talked about the history of Black History Month starting in the 1920s when people realized the history of black people was being excluded. He also discussed the history of segregation and discrimination from sharecropping to redlining in suburbs even after the Civil Rights Act was passed. “We need to embrace and check out this history because we don’t know their experiences,” Adams said. Embracing history and inviting people in is what made black people come to a “white church” like Harvest and make it an interracial church.“We’re an interracial church here in Anson County, making history today.”

Other speakers talked about the perseverance of faith over fear and messages of love, as well as their experiences of being “black 365 days a year…” as said by Scotland County Schools Superintendent and Town of Wingate Commissioner Dr. Takeda LeGrand.

This service celebrated the legacies in black history and those who are making progress at Harvest.

“Black history is intertwined with everything we’ve done,” Adams added. “Legacies paved the way for us.”