Storytellers bring new life to McMillan-Reese Chapel at Knoxville College | Opinion
For the first time in 10 years I attended a public program in the McMillan-Reese Chapel at Knoxville College. The college had used the facility for a more recent commencement there and I was on program to give a brief history of the college for that occasion.
During Black History Month the Black Appalachian Storytellers of Tennessee took the stage before a near-capacity crowd and brought new life to the old church that reminded me of my college days. Former Carpetbag Theatre leader Linda Parris-Bailey, noted jazz performer Kelle Jolly and internationally known folk singers Rhonda and Sparky Rucker headlined the production. Junior high school student Mekia Johnson was also featured.
They sang and told stories that kept the audience engaged and delighted. Parris-Bailey surprised the audience by singing a song she had written. Jolly amused the crowd with the story of how she got her name and Rucker related his experiences at Maynard and Cansler elementary schools. He mused about spending his parents' money to go to the University of Tennessee but became a folk singer.
As I listened to the performers and looked around the refurbished sanctuary, I thought of the years when I had to attend mandatory chapel there two days a week and of the noted and less-noted speakers and performers who visited the campus. The student body was exposed to various kinds of activities deemed important to advance our education. The chapel was the only suitable facility for them.
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As I sat on pews that were made by the students in the woodworking shop, I was reminded of their toil in building that church 110 years ago. They made the bricks at the campus brickyard, and they felled the trees on the KC timberland in Blount County and hauled them to the campus. Under the supervision of a foreman, students erected the building.
The church was designed by William Thomas Jones, a 1909 graduate of the KC Normal Department. The idea for it came with a gift of $8,450 from Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to honor its pastor, the Rev. W.H. McMillan, who had served the congregation for almost 40 years and had been president of the Freedmen's Bureau for 21 years. Last year the KC Board of Trustees decided to add the name of the Rev. James Foster Reese to the 1913 chapel. He was a 1946 KC graduate and was pastor of the church from 1959 to 1967.
For 56 years the chapel was the principal auditorium for musical performances and speakers on the campus. It was the main stage for the College Quartet, Octette, Concert Choir, Coleridge Taylor Chorus and other campus groups. It hosted many world-famous figures including, George Washington Carver in 1921, Carter G. Woodson in 1924, James Weldon Johnson in 1926, Mary McLeod Bethune in 1935, Jesse Owens in 1936 and Jackie Robinson in 1956.
A church was organized on campus March 18, 1877, and services were held on the top floor of the Administration Building for its first 36 years, becoming First United Presbyterian Church. The first pastors were KC presidents. The first non-president was the Rev. Benjamin B. Evans, a KC grad, who served from 1937 to 1944.
The public program in the chapel June 9, 2013, was a commemoration of its centennial and tried to mirror some of the activities held there during that 100-year period. In addition to a choir singing Negro spirituals, there was a barbershop quartet, comedian Terry Wright,singer Michael Rodgers, and tunes from the Knoxville Opera Company. There also were selections from Parris-Bailey and Jolly.
Robert J. Booker is a freelance writer and former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He may be reached at 865-546-1576.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Opinion: Storytellers bring new life to McMillan-Reese Chapel
