Are we still living in Jim Crow-era Mississippi?
That’s the situation a couple faced after they were turned away from getting married at a Mississippi church – solely for being black.
According to WLBT-TV news, Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson were set to marry at a Mississippi church when the white congregation at the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs “had decided no black could be married at that church.”
Dr. Stan Weatherford, the pastor, told him that his parishioners had vowed to vote him out if he went ahead with the wedding.
Te’Andrea said:
“He had people in the sanctuary that were pitching a fit about us being a black couple.”
Weatherford performed the Wilsons’ wedding at another church in the area, forcing them to abandon months of planning.
“I didn’t want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn’t want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te’ Andrea…I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day,” he said.
Charles said he places the blame on non-racist church members “who knew and call themselves Christians and didn’t stand up” to the ones who opposed his wedding.
It’s terribly sad that many have not evolved since the Civil Rights Movement.
