Alphabet File page 158

  In 1816 and 1820 respectively, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches (AMEZ) were formed.  Black Methodists felt they were being discriminated against, and as a result, formed their own Episcopal organizations, where Blacks could be bishops and truly lead their congregations.

  John Wesley preached that slave trade was the "...sum of all villainies."  But until the dawn of the Civil War, the issue of slavery was never really confronted within the church structure.  Slavery was tolerated as much within the church as it was in the community at large.

  There were whites who objected and were more vocal about it. In 1842-43 a group of Methodist Abolitionists formed the Wesleyan Methodist Church.  Slaveholders could not be members of this church.  This precipitated the 1844 split of the Methodist Church in America, allegedly over slavery.

  The northern church was called the Methodist Episcopal (ME) church and the southern called the Methodist Episcopal South (MES).  This split naturally resulted in the southern church losing the majority of its Black constituency to the ME, the AME and the AMEZ churches.

  At the persistent urging of Blacks within the church, two conferences for Black ME's were approved at the 1864 ME General Conference:  Washington and Delaware. This allowed Black delegates at the 1868 General Conference to be "then seated in this the highest governing body of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

  There was discrimination within the northern church even with its many strides.  There were no Black bishops until 1920. And a division was drawn along racial lines.  In fact, four Black students were turned away from an ME college, University of Chattanooga, in the late 1880s.

  Gulfside Assembly evolved directly from the needs of Black Methodists.  By 1923, Blacks had been forced into their separate conferences.  Ultimately, white Methodists wanted as little social contact with Black Methodists as possible.  The Methodist Church was truly a mirror of American society as it existed then.  Jim Crow was alive and well.

  In 1939 Jim Crow was formalized.  Since their split over slavery in 1844, whites, North and South, had been pushing for unification in the Methodist kingdom.  The stumbling block was the Black Methodist.  Where would they put him?

  So they legitimized what already existed.  They formed the Central Jurisdiction, where all of the Black Methodist conferences were lumped.  The door was opened for the Northern and Southern Methodists to reunite and they did.

  In 1920, Rev. Matthew W. Clair and Rev. Robert E. Jones became the first Blacks to be elevated to the office of bishop.  As Mr. Rometta Roberts, one of Gulfside's former directors and wife to one of the Ministers who helped found Gulfside, tells it, Bishop Jones was speaking at a white Methodist campground when he got the idea for Gulfside.

  The campgrounds were situated on a lake in Ohio. Why not have a campground, a meeting place for Black Methodists in their own district, which encompassed West Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi at that time.

  Waveland, Mississippi was centrally located, on the Gulf Coast, 55 miles from New Orleans, where his main office was located at 631 Baronne Street.

  He raised approximately $4,000 to purchase land through the aid of churches and individuals.  With this money he bought 300 acres and leased 316 acres.  How could a Black man purchase beach front property in Mississippi during the hay day of Jim Crow?  Simple.  Bishop Jones was very fairskinned and the sellers mistook him for white.

  There was only one building on the whole of the 616 acres. It was called the Jackson House because it supposedly had been the home of President Andrew Jackson.

  It was a magnificent old mansion with very large rooms.  The structure stood some eight to ten feet above the ground and the first floor had a porch wide enough for meeting space, that rapped around the front and sides.  The space underneath "provided a comfortable shelter for the cows and the hogs that roamed the nearby forest."

  Bishop Jones marshaled his force of 14 preachers, and local craftsmen set about putting the deteriorating structure back in living condition.  Ms. Roberts says that the bottom was eventually closed in and a kitchen constructed in the rear. The men also built a screened-in pavilion with a dirt floor where meetings were to be held.  The immediate grounds were cleaned and a tennis court etched out also.

  There was a poor excuse for a dirt road leading to the Jackson house area.  When it rained, there literally was no road so most people walked the three miles or so to the Jackson house, through the woods.

  Those first two decades under the leadership of Bishop Jones saw Gulfside blossom into not only a pivotal point of the New Orleans area, but for the region as well.

  In the early days, events at Gulfside took place in the summer:  The Young Men's Christian Association Conference, the Summer School for Town and Country Pastors, the Summer School of Theology for aspiring ministers, the Boy's Camp and Girls Reserves, Bishop Jones' Area Council Meetings and picnics sponsored by groups throughout the region.

  Ms. Ruth Sanders went to Gulfside through her church, Wesley United Methodists, reputed by some to be the oldest Black Methodist congregation in New Orleans.  A Ms. Purnell would take the girls every summer for a week.  Ms. Sanders remembers rigorous religious instruction and recreation.  She also remembers, "being awakened up in what they called early morning, but it was still night."

  For attorney Lolis Elie, who went to Gilbert Academy, a Black Methodist high school in New Orleans located on St. Charles Ave. where De LaSalle High School is today, traveling to Gulfside was his first trip outside New Orleans.  Tom Dent, local writer, and his brothers, went every summer with the Dryades Street YMCA.

  Bishop Jones tenure at Gulfside, which spanned the Great Depression, was speckled with threats of foreclosure.  But Gulfside always managed to meet payment.  Pennies were collected, philanthropists courted, and lots sold from the 300 acres that were bought.

  There was also the prejudice of the times.  My father, who was from Waveland, volunteered often at Gulfside.  He told me of cross burnings on several occasions.  Many whites were angered by Black folks' "defiling" the Jackson house.

  One winter morning in the 1940's it mysteriously caught fire. Some blame it on the Poor Boys School that used the facility in the winter.  Some blamed it on whites.  A hurricane in 1947 finished the Jackson house and other buildings that were built on the purchased land.

  In 1944, Bishop Robert N. Brooks became administrator of Gulfside.  Under his leadership the Board of Trustees was formed so that the burden of Gulfside did not rest with just one person.  He encouraged people to give dollars instead of pennies.  Over a period of eight years Brooks Chapel Gulfside Inn, Harry Hoosier Auditorium and the Bishop's house were built.  These buildings were of cinder block construction, so they were better able to withstand the follies of man and nature.

  Under Bishop Brooks' leadership, Gulfside continued to be the focal point for "training...youth retreats, jurisdictional meetings, and leadership training enterprises."  But all was slowed when in 1968 Black Methodists were finally accepted on an equal footing by white Methodists.

  The all Black Central Jurisdiction was disbanded, and the Black membership was interspersed among the existing white conferences.  As a result, interest in Gulfside dwindled.

  There was talk of selling Gulfside and dividing the proceeds among the 12 Black ME colleges.  But those efforts were laid to rest by Bishop Mack B. Stokes, Bishop Ernest T. Dixon and layman, Wayne Calbert.  These three worked tirelessly to preserve what they thought was a Black treasure.  The fruit of their labor can be seen  in the newly renovated, modern facility that exists today under the direction of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Kellogg.