160 years of sanctuary at Pilgrim Baptist Church
St. Paul’s Pilgrim Baptist Church has served as a sanctuary for Black people living in Minnesota for more than a century and a half.
The church first formed in 1863 when a group of formerly enslaved people, led by a man named Robert Thomas Hickman, began worshiping together. They built a raft and attempted to escape from Jefferson City, Mo., during the height of the Civil War.
The group migrated by boat and called themselves pilgrims.
They eventually made it to Fort Snelling through a steamship, known as the War Eagle, and the help of the Underground Railroad.
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“When they got to Fort Snelling, apparently the military decided that they were going to split this group up into three separate groups and send them to different parts of the state,” said James Robinson, a longtime member of the church and an assistant professor in the ethnic and religious studies department at Metropolitan State University.
Robinson says the group that made it to St. Paul included Robert Thomas Hickman.
Hickman’s enslaver taught him to read and gave him permission to preach to other enslaved people. With his leadership, Pilgrim Baptist Church was built.
The church once stood on Sibley Street, but moved to St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood in 1928 and now stands on Central Avenue.
As the church celebrates 160 years of existence, Robinson says it’s important to look back on history to learn its lessons and not repeat the mistakes of the past.
“So history has an important role in giving every generation direction, not necessarily telling you where to go. But where you’ve been,” Robinson said.
Robinson says the Black church has been one of the few places throughout American history where African Americans have had autonomy and self-determining power as a group.
Over the years Pilgrim has been renovated — but worshippers today sit on the original pews, and portraits of former pastors are etched on stained glass windows where the light shines through.
Charles Gill has been senior pastor here for nearly 20 years. He says while the church has been a place of worship all those years, it was also a place pastors could amplify the voices of those who fought for equal rights.
“Along the way, Pilgrim has been a force of stabilization for this community, [a place] where its pastors were able to stand for right and stand on the behalf of those that are silent,” Gill said.
Part of that call to action included demanding that a bridge be built to allow people to walk to the church after construction of I-94 in the 1960s displaced thousands of people in the Rondo neighborhood.
Pilgrim Baptist Church members have also served the community in other ways as they have founded local chapters of the Urban League and the NAACP, and also founded the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.
Nate Galloway is a facilities manager at the church. He says former pastors, along with new ones, paved the way for generations to worship and succeed in peace.
“They’ve used their knowledge, they’ve used their skills to shepherd not only the people inside this building 24/7, but out in the community,” Galloway said.
As he looks back on 160 years, Galloway says lessons from the past should serve as a reminder of how one came to be, and how to create a better path moving forward.
He says the church’s history is something to build on and hopefully carry on for decades to come.
“With God, there is always hope,” says Althea Rupert, chair of the board of Christian Education at the church. Her great grandmother joined the church in 1866. And while many things have improved since the civil war, she says positive change has no finish line. Her faith keeps her believing good things are coming for the next 100 years.
“We know things are not perfect,” Rupert said. “There are challenges, but we know that with God, there’s always something better out there.”
Pilgrim Baptist Church will celebrate 160 years beginning Saturday, June 24 at the Hilton Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport hotel. Visit the church’s website for details.
