Black History in Our Conference

An interview with Gratia Strother, Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference Archivist, on the history of one of the conference’s oldest historically Black Methodist congregations.

Q: Pickett Rucker United Methodist Church is celebrating its 160th anniversary this March. Why does this church hold such a significant place in our conference’s history?

A: Pickett Rucker is not the oldest Black church that originated in our conference, but it is likely the oldest continuously operating historically Black church. Its story is inseparable from the history of Pickett Chapel, now a designated United Methodist Historic Site. Pickett Chapel, built in 1827, is the oldest church building in Middle Tennessee that was home to a Black congregation at the beginning of their existence. 

Understanding Pickett Rucker’s story requires understanding the roots of Black Methodism in Lebanon and the faithful community that has sustained it for more than a century and a half.

Q: You’ve been assisting with historical research connected to the 160th anniversary. What does that work involve?

A: As Conference Archivist, I regularly support churches preparing for milestone anniversaries by sharing records already preserved in our archives and advising church history teams on how to compile, document, and tell their stories. 

Each congregation is responsible for researching and organizing its own anniversary materials, but my role is to guide that process and ensure that records are accurately preserved for the future.

Pickett Rucker’s history requires additional attention for two important reasons. 

• First, it is directly connected to Pickett Chapel, a designated United Methodist Historic Site. When our conference votes to nominate a site for that designation, we commit to continuing to preserve, interpret, and promote its history. 
• Second, Pickett Rucker is one of the oldest historically Black Methodist congregations in our conference that remains active today. Its earliest official document is a deed dated July 1866. However, evidence suggests the congregation’s roots extend much earlier, to 1812, with the 104 Black members of the newly formed Lebanon Circuit, or as part of the Black membership of Lebanon First when it became a station church in 1834, with 44 Black members. 

Note: When Lebanon First relocated to a new building in the 1850s, it retained its original structure until it was sold to Pickett Chapel in 1866. That continuity matters as we seek to understand the congregation’s full history. 

Q: What are you learning as you reconstruct the earliest history of Pickett Chapel and Pickett Rucker?

A: One major challenge is that the congregation’s oldest surviving membership records begin in 1974. To fill historical gaps, I am researching the Black members of Lebanon First UMC prior to the Civil War. Many of those individuals likely became founding members of Pickett Chapel and later Pickett Rucker. I am also working to pinpoint the original locations of two Lebanon African Missions and the circuits that served Black Methodists during and after Reconstruction. They may correspond with Pickett Chapel and Seay’s Chapel, but that connection is still being carefully confirmed through documentation.

Q: What kinds of records have been most helpful in tracing the church’s earliest members?

A: Several sources have been essential:
• Freedmen’s Bureau records for Wilson County listing Freedmen’s schools. Black congregations often established churches and schools simultaneously. Schools that were partially funded through the Methodist Episcopal Church Freedmen’s Aid Society are listed in these records, and often connected to a Methodist church.
• The 1860 U.S. Census and Slave Schedule, which helps align surnames and identify families living near the Pickett Chapel site.
• Property records, which reveal how the surrounding area shifted from housing several white churches before the Civil War to becoming a Black neighborhood afterward.
• Records in our archives help us trace the origins of Pickett Chapel from Lebanon First to the “Lebanon African Mission” of the Tennessee Conference Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838.. The statistics show the exodus of Black membership from Lebanon First to the mission membership when this segregated mission church was continued in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1844.

Q: What are the next steps in understanding Pickett Rucker’s role in broader Methodist history?

A: Pickett Rucker’s Protestant denomination changed five times, and it’s categorization within the church changed twelve times throughout its history, yet the congregation persevered and thrives today. Discovering this history will help us further understand the experience of Black Methodists. 

Q: Why is it important to tell this story now?

A: Because the story of Pickett Rucker is a story of resilience, faith, and community. It is a testament to Black Methodists who built a spiritual home under unthinkable circumstances, before, during, and after emancipation.

Their legacy continues to shape our conference today. Honoring this history helps us honor them.

Submitted by Hannah Ensley, TWK Communications Intern, February 2026