Chronicling Mississippi’s ‘Church Mothers,’ and Getting to Know a Grandmother

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Samuel G. Freedman

Corine Thomas, 93, a church mother from Lambert, Miss. The term
is one of respect and homage in black Christianity. Credit Alysia Burton Steele

MISSISSIPPI---Toward noon on a torrid Monday in the Mississippi Delta, Alysia Burton Steele drove down Highway 49, looking for the crossroads near the Old Antioch Baptist Church. A photographer by training and a professor by title, Ms. Steele was headed for the homes of two older neighbors, Lela Bearden, 88, and Herma Mims Floyd. She was bringing the women legacies to inspect, legacies in the form of portraits and testimonies she had taken of them over the last few years. Ms. Bearden and Ms. Floyd were part of a larger assemblage of 50 African-American women whom Ms. Steele had chosen to chronicle in text and image for a book-in-progress she has titled “Jewels in the Delta.” Whether by formal investiture or informal acclamation, nearly all the women in the book held the title of “church mother,” a term of respect and homage in black Christianity. [link]