(soft music) - Up next on Keystone Stories, Black History Keepers (soft music) In cities and towns across Pennsylvania, including right here in Bellfonte.

Black people have helped to enrich and build communities, that history is often forgotten or not well known.

One person who made it, her mission to tell these stories was the late Reverend Dr. Donna King, an activist, educator, and pastor of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal or AME Church.

(piano) African Americans have played an integral role in Bellefone's history.

When she was alive, Dr. King, who some called mama king, worked to unearth and share this history with the community.

- Amen.

- She invited people to worship at the church and share the important role that the church and its members played in Bellefone.

- But it helps when you're sitting in a site for the underground railroad, cause I don't know about you, but I woke up this morning with my mind, stayed on free.

- Amen - To Jesus.

- Dr. King was the pastor of the St. Paul AME Church and taught at Penn state.

St. Paul AME church was organized in the 18 hundreds and is believed by some to have been a stop on the underground railroad.

Land for the church was provided by a Quaker named William Thomas.

- Because God is lying and in him is no darkness head on, and that's the only way you're gonna let your soul live.

- When I walked into the building, I just felt like I was walking back into the past and crossing the threshold of many who have came across that threshold before in the past.

- St. Paul is a church on the hill and it's just got the stained glass that you see, and it looks like a historic church, an angelic church.

I just look around and I see the old saints that was here that worked here and that feels good to me.

- The church was part of the political, the economic, the social atmosphere, particularly for African Americans.

This is our sanctuary.

But wasn't for the church, we had no place to go to socialize, to make plans about our livelihoods and our life, church was very important.

- It's important for people here and now to learn about this because quite frankly, a lot of white folks, which are, who are the majority around here, and a lot of other folks too, just don't know that history.

- A town built up by the iron industry.

Some residents of Bellfonte had anti-slavery sentiment.

Several homes and buildings in the area are believed to have been stops on the underground railroad.

According to historian Charles Blockson, while some enslaved people passed through Bellfonte on their way, further north to freedom.

Others settled in the area.

In 1885 members of St. Paul AME petitioned the local school board to provide more equitable, educational opportunities for Bellfonte's black students.

- The trustees of this church did that.

This church is rooted in so much social justice.

- Another way that Donna King shared the story of the church in black history in Bellfonte was by leading historical walking tours in the town.

- It's one thing to talk to talk, but it's another thing to walk the walk and to become a historian and learn all of the history of Bellfonte.

And that tells you there's a legacy of social justice that goes along with Penn State and Bellfonte and its founding that we really need to continue to have these tours.

So not only do faculty and staff learn about it, but we need to teach it to our young people and also our students.

And I bring my students on the same tour that you're gonna do now.

So let's light the lantern, whenever you have a lantern lit, that means that we're coming near a safe house or a place of freedom.

And what I call a freedom mindset or an abolitionist mindset.

- One stop on Donna King's tours was the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial.

The Memorial holds the names of more than 3000 center county veterans from various wars, including the Civil War.

One section shows the names of members of the United States color troops.

- And if you look at some of these names, some of these men were members of the St. Paul AME Church.

So we are trying to keep a legacy alive at St. Paul.

- A few homes and buildings in Bellfonte, including what was known as the Lynn house.

Now the home of the Bellfonte art museum are believed to have been stops on the underground railroad because of the secret nature of the endeavor, documentation to validate anecdotal stories are sometimes hard to find.

- So when we say we don't belong here, people of color, you shouldn't feel that way.

Learn the history, history is the cure.

If we would teach our students how people came together to write a wrong like slavery in the underground railroad, maybe they could see what justice really is.

You have to fight for freedom, but at the same time, you don't fight alone.

We're actually standing in the place where grandfather Mills had a barbershop.

- One of the people, pastor King highlighted on our tours was William H. Mills, a leader of the St. Paul AME church and the grandfather of members of the famous musical group, the Mills Brothers.

He owned a barbershop in Bellfonte for 60 years.

It is reported that famed abolitionist, author and order Frederick Douglas visited the barbershop while in town to give a speech.

- When I did the tour in Bellfonte that mama King led, it gave me a chance to see how what I've learned is connected to what is there.

- Harriet Gaston has done extensive research on local black history, particularly in Blair county.

- There are stories on almost every town and or county in what we would call central PA about their history of and reaction and relationships to things like the underground railroad, the 1850 fugitive slave law, the United States colored troops, black cemeteries, businesses, black owned businesses that existed in almost every town that have done my research on.

- Reverend Dr. Donna King was familiar with the written material about the underground railroad, about black history and Bellfonte, but she knew so much more because there was a legacy of people passing stories down within that community within St. Paul's AME, within the black community in Bellfonte center county.

Dr. King could talk about the underground railroad or black activism and she could draw direct connections to what is happening in social justice in 2016, 2017, 2018.

- A lot of it came through faith based initiatives.

- And that is powerful.

There aren't many people who are like that, and people who are like that and still choose to educate people are even more rare.

- The light of freedom has come, we made it, good job people.

- The last stop on our tours was St. Paul AME the historic church on the hill.

- It's so important to people to see things, to see actual presence and to see, and feel the history right around them, which is right here, built into this building.

It's a beautiful place, and it's a symbol of that rich, rich history, very significant history of struggle and triumph and perseverance and endurance against many odds.

- The history needs to be preserved.

The truth needs to be preserved.

- Making sure that we're incorporating a complete history of center county of Bellfonte ensures that we have a complete understanding of who we are and where we have been.

And it gives us the information that we need to ensure that we have an equitable future.

- This is our country.

And so we have to make sure that not just African black Americans, but all Americans know what makes up America.

And we are rich and steeped in that tradition.

- There is so much history left to be uncovered.

So many stories to be told and lessons to be learned from the people who called this area home long ago.

In Bellfonte and elsewhere in central Pennsylvania, like Donna King, community members and scholars continue to research and find ways to share the history of the important role that blacks played in local communities.

A history that is too important to be lost (cheering) The AME church and Bellfonte isn't the only church in the area that's significant to black history.

As we learn in this WPSUR town segment Mount union is home to several black churches each with its own unique legacy.

- Hi, I'm pastor Sylvia Morris, and I am here today to talk about the history of the predominantly black churches in Mount Union.

I'm affiliated with Bethel AME church, but attend and participate in all the other churches, too.

Our sister churches, as we call them, Mount Hope Missionary Baptist church.

Okay, a few blocks from us, and Tabernacle church of God in Christ.

Another few blocks from us and Pain church, which is our sister church in Huntington.

At the beginning of the church, whenever they started, all three of them began in homes.

You had a group of people that gathered together to have worship.

They all came from different places, Virginia, Arkansas, they migrated so that they could come north and have a better life for their children.

They also brought who they were, their religion, their faith, and that's how these three churches got started.

They just worked and worked.

Mount Hope will be what, 105 years old, Tabernacle church of God in Christ is 90 years old.

Bethel will be celebrating our hundredth anniversary and Pain is celebrating their 150th.

And they've been in this community and represent this community.

And our hopes is that we are inputting into young people of all faiths and colors and nationalities.

So that a hundred years later, it will still be going on.

We stand on the shoulders of great men and great women who sacrificed a lot so that we could be where we are.

Sunday was spent all day in church.

You'd go to Sunday school, you'd go to church.

And then after that, there'd be a meeting and then you'd have YPD, young people's division and then in the evening, there would be evening services.

That was a lot of how we not only learned about spiritual, but also community, that we all cared about one another, we all knew about one another.

And so it was something that was natural, it was just something that was brought up with you.

Used to be people weren't involved because we were so busy.

Now that's kind of changed.

I served this school board, Mountain Union area, school board, I'm on the school board.

We have people that sit on borough council.

We have people on the library board, just out there just taking a more active role.

You don't have to sacrifice who you are because that's what makes you wanna come and serve the whole, not just this race, not just this neighborhood, but how can we make it all better for the town that we live in.

This is really a nice place to be.

We are tops, we are little, but we are mighty.

You know, and so this is home.

You can visit anywhere you want, I do visit anywhere I want, but I don't think I would wanna live anywhere else but right here in Mount Union.

- In 2015, WPSU produced a program that documents the collections of prominent historian.

Charles Blockson.

Mr. Blockson started collecting books as a child, and as he grew, so did his collection.

Here's in abridge version of that program.

- When I was in the fourth grade, I had a substitute teacher.

One day, we were talking about American history, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, others who contributed to the found of this country.

And I raised my hand I asked her about, the colored people as we were called, a Negro, do we have a history?

She said, no Charles, Negros were born to serve white people.

- Charles LeRoy Blockson was born in 1933 in the midst of the great depression to Annie Parker Blockson and Charles Edward Blockson.

The eldest of eight children, he spent his childhood in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

- We had people of all races and colors and creed on my street.

Our parents told us certain things that colored in Negro that we would have to endure because there was even Norristown there was places that we couldn't go.

So we had this defect segregation.

- Spurred by his teacher's painful words, Blockson unknowingly began what would become a lifelong journey to unearth, collect and preserve the history, culture, and contributions of people, of African descent.

- I went into the salvation army stores and Goodwill stores looking for any book that said Negro, colored, African, west Indian or black.

So I started to collect.

- The butting historian and collector was also a star athlete in multiple sports from junior high, through his college years at Penn State.

Even while playing sports Blockson always found his way back to books.

Later in life, he would turn down an opportunity to play professional football in favor of his collecting.

- The river I traveled playing sports where other teammates would go to the parties.

I would go to the bookstores, then I would go to the parties.

My roommates and teammates wonder, why do you always go to those bookstores?

They didn't really know what I was collecting.

And in my room my books competed under the bed with my boxing gloves, my footballs, my shot put and discs and all the other stuff.

So it was a competition right there between books, athletics and so forth.

I'm mad that the books worn out.

(soft music) I didn't have any idea at all, that it would extend as far as it has over the years.

It was more to pacify my own soul and intellect.

And I guess underneath, from a psychological point of view, to prove my teacher wrong.

So from a little boy curious, going from the salvation army Goodwill stores, my book collection excursion had taken me to many parts of the world.

And it's led me to donating my first collection here at Temple University in 1984.

The second collection is at Penn State.

(soft music) - The Charles L Blockson and Afro-American collection is one of our nation's leading research facilities for the study of the history and culture of people of African descent.

We have over 700,000 items in the collection, which range from rare books, prints, newspapers, illustrations, pamphlets, music, personal archival collections, a whole host of materials.

But these are like some images from... - Why, why don't you get a cup of the book?

Oh, we can just hold on thing.

- And because Mr. Blockson started collecting when he was nine years old, this is like a one stop place.

- My mother saved everything, all these photographs, luckily let me see.

- Just about every project I've done.

I always come to the collection because everything's here.

And on top of that, I just like to pick a book off the shelf to read sometimes.

- I have books, the oldest book in 15 hundreds and books about poetry, books about children and all kind of images of to tell our story, in order to tell the whole history, the true history, you must include the pride and prejudice.

One of them most important books in the collection.

It was called the Underground Railroad.

When I was a little boy, my grandfather would sing a song the Highway To Heaven walking up the King's highway.

I said, grandpa, what are you singing about?

He said, I'm singing about the underground railroad.

He said, my father, your great grandfather escaped on the underground railroad, went to Canada.

The code word for Canada with heaven.

So it came back to me And I looked in the book and found page 488.

It said arrival from Suther county, Delaware, in 1858.

And the first name, it says Jacob Blockson.

So it verified what my grandfather was talking about.

His father and his relatives escaped the underground railroad.

Later, I found they escaped several of them with Harriot Tubman - Throughout his career, Charles Blockson has written articles and books about the underground railroad.

His connection with Harriet Tubman grew even stronger when he was entrusted with several personal items, belonging to the abolitionist by her great grand niece.

He donated those items to the Smithsonian's national museum of African American history and culture in 2010.

- You can see on the back of the card, lots of interesting information about where the photo... - I like to bring my students to the collection so that they can see the range of African American materials.

I want the students to see the text that we're reading within a broader context.

Here is this complicated, intricate, interwoven body of material that crosses all kinds of geographic cultural lines.

This is a collection that you could come to and be surprised and make a discovery.

- Phillis Wheatley is one of the epitome of collecting.

She was enslaved and brought to America and sold to a Quaker family in Boston, Massachusetts.

She learned to read and write and she started to write poetry.

In 1773 she had the honor of becoming the first woman of African descent to publish a book of poetry.

There's only about six or seven known copies of this book.

I was in love with her and she horned me here and horned me there.

Whenever I went to a bookstore, very bookstore around the country, someone would beat me to it.

So a friend of mine, old book seller, sent me the copying of Phillis Wheatley and page through the book.

Tears came into my eyes when I realized that this book, this young lady who haunted me from bookstore to bookstore, I finally held her in my hand.

And I didn't realize until I looked, it's signed by her.

It was the autograph copy of Phyllis Wheatley.

This book, a cornerstone of American literature, as well as African American literature.

The shackles are very emotional.

I hesitated in the beginning, whether I should even try to preserve them.

But nevertheless, they sort of went along with the books and manuscripts that I have pertain to the statement.

To know that my own ancestors were enslaved.

There's a story behind these shackles.

That is a part of history.

My eyes was always on the positive, as well as the negative.

This is the negative part of our history.

This is a key that exerts into the lock here, to open the lock.

They made 'em for the arms and the ankles and sometime they had them around the mouth.

- For a lot of students, and I think for a lot of Americans, ideas about slavery are so removed from our everyday experiences, and so, to look at something and, and imagine an item like that, being worn by another human being, is just, well it's, it's very sad.

- From the shackles we emerged into writers, judges, preachers, ministers, actors, all kinds of endeavors in life.

It gives me strength and determination to carry on.

- This collection tells a story of tremendous diversity.

There's something to be said, not just for the materials that are collected, but just the process of collecting and creating this archive that says, this is a sacred project, you know, and that these are important materials, this is a story worth telling.

And so you see African American culture has been foundational in the development of American society.

- Charles Blockson is not only a collector, but an educator, historian and author.

Writing articles and books on varied topics, including black genealogy.

He has championed the placement of markers at significant African American historical locations around Philadelphia and has become one of the Philadelphia area's most trusted and treasured voices.

- Years later, about 20-30 years later, I met my school teacher and she apologized.

She said, she didn't know when she told me Negroes were born to serve white people.

She said she was always hurt because this is the way she was taught.

She said, she's proud of what I was doing as far as our history.

So I didn't hold any grudges.

It was like, I forgave her.

The only way to improve ourselves is to understand people of all races, you know, their history, their contribution to this country and to the world.

- I hope that I have given them to the world, something of myself, part of my soul, to whoever it would accept it and that they would also pass along I realize my life ambition, I believe that by being a collector to collect, preserve, and to disseminate these knowledge.

Knowledge belongs to the world and my experience from books, and so forth, should be passed on.

(soft music) - Thanks for joining us.

See you next time on Keystone stories.

(soft music)