FAIR HAVEN – The Fisk Chapel A.M.E. Church is celebrating Black History Month with a lineup of community events.
On Sunday, Feb. 10 at 10 a.m., the Woman’s Day Program will feature a speaker, the Rev. Dr. Amelda Lee, of Providence Baptist Church, Cliffwood.
The following Sunday, Feb. 17, at 3 p.m. will feature “Sojourner Truth,” a one-woman performance by Loraine Stone. Stone is an actress and storyteller who, as a “performance poet,” brings to life poetry from important African American poets. Her portrayal of Sojourner Truth will tell the story of the woman who walked through several states, preaching her message of freedom for slaves and equal rights for women.
Finally, on Sunday, Feb. 24, at 10 a.m., Halfacre and the Borough Council will honor the late George Berry. Berry was a member of the Fisk Chapel congregation and the first and only African American to sit on Fair Haven’s Borough Council.
Also that Sunday at 3 p.m., the program will feature guest speaker Megan Arnone, a teacher at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School and founder of the RFH-Kenya Harambee Project, whose topic will be “Coming Together for a Mutual Cause.”
Activities kicked off with a Soul Food Dinner on Feb. 2 that was followed on Feb. 3 by a Black History Month Proclamation from Mayor Michael Halfacre along with speaker and Kenyan Missionary Stacy Harris.
Fisk Chapel, with a current congregation of approximately 60 members, is a long-standing pillar of the community, according to Jesse Harris, who is coordinating Black History Month events at the church.
Fisk Chapel will celebrate its 150th anniversary in September of this year.
“We have a long history,” said Harris of the church community in Fair Haven.
Fisk Chapel was initially established as the Bethel A.M.E. Church on River Road in 1858, one of the first African American churches in the area, Harris said.
Around the turn of the century, Gen. Clinton Bowen Fisk financed the building of his namesake Fisk Chapel to house the growing congregation.
The congregation moved again in 1976, this time to its current location on Fisk Street, donating the old church, now called Bicentennial Hall, to the borough.
At both the council meeting as well as the Fisk Chapel service, Halfacre read the Black History Month Proclamation which states:
“Historic Fisk Chapel was constructed to serve not only as a church, but also as social center and meeting hall for the African American community. The borough of Fair Haven is proud to have such an important part of the African American culture preserved.”