The Scotland AME Zion church , next to Seven Locks Road in Potomac , plans to celebrate its centennial anniversary in 2024 with the re-opening of a restored and expanded sanctuary . Right : Congregants Ken Cummins , left , and Chuck Williams help lead the campaign committee for the church ’ s 2nd Century Project .
right here . . . and that ’ s why we have fought , through thick and thin , to stay .”
................................................................... Living History , Precarious Future ...................................................................
Prior to the Civil War , approximately one third of Montgomery County landowners held enslaved workers , who comprised about 40 percent of the area ’ s population . After Emancipation , when newly freed Black families established more than 40 enclaves of their own in the county , churches were typically the first buildings erected . They were modest in size , fashioned from hand-hewn lumber and often coated with whitewash , an inexpensive mixture of lime , water , and salt .
Plumbing and heating systems were non-existent , except for the less-than-airtight potbelly stoves that were known to have burned at least a few churches to the ground . Walls were so thin the preachers ’ thunderous sermons would echo
through woods and valleys . Exuberant choirs — singing , clapping , and dancing in union with packed congregations — would literally shake entire buildings .
“ These institutions , sometimes with a nearby school and a building for the charitable benevolent society , were central to the ascendance of free Blacks ,” said historian and benefactor Knight Kiplinger of Seneca , a nationally renowned writer and publisher . “ Churches remained the core feature of these Black communities until desegregation , beginning with the schools in 1955 .”
The community of Scotland , founded by formerly enslaved landowners William and Henry Dove circa 1880 , became a central national player in the dark American era of whitewashing , or what the Black community sadly refers to as “ urban removal .” The historic Save Our Scotland movement , which helped spur the federal government to pass the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 , did help provide Scotland residents
with townhouses that still exist . But many other Black communities were essentially wiped off the map , in part , by discriminatory government policies .
Even Scotland got a raw deal . When Seven Locks Road was rerouted and paved for the convenience of the encroaching white neighbors , contractors built the road section next to Scotland AME Zion through a wetland on the downhill side of the building . That left the church in the landscape version of a bathtub — with the road acting as a water dam — for the next 60 years .
“ They were still trying to use the basement for Sunday school and other gatherings when I got here in 2003 ,” said Ken Cummins , a journalist from Kansas who calls the Scotland choir “ the most powerful example of God ’ s grace ” that he has experienced . “ The congregation tried everything to re-route the water and dry the basement , but there were always frogs and snakes down there after the rainstorms and , finally , the water won .”
plenty I autumn harvest 2023 19