MR. WALTER WRIGHT, BROOKS CHAPEL AME-BUTLER AND ME

MR. WALTER WRIGHT, BROOKS CHAPEL AME CHURCH AND ME I write today in praise of Mr. Walter Wright of Butler, Bates County , Missouri . This humble, modest, man is emblematic of those who brought us through, carried us over, treacherous terrains quietly. His wife was the late dynamic, Mildred Wright, treasurer of Brooks Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, (AME) and later treasurer of the Amen Society. I had formerly pastored from Brooks Chapel AME from 1995-2004. Writing of Mr. Walter Wright is equivalent to writing of Mrs. Mildred Wright. They were a wonderful team and a most delightful couple. Mr. Wright was a quiet man that one would hardly notice until it was time to get some work done; then there he was, unassuming working. When I first got to Brooks Chapel, it was in a sorry state, physically and spiritually. There was one member, Mother Cooper, also deceased who sang old "songs of Zion" that never made it to anyone's song book. The pastor was also in a sorry state, for I was not officially ordained. Rather, I was a licentiate, "licensed" by the Board of Examiners to preach , but not yet ordained by an AME bishop. The historical church had been an old general store that in 1871 had been hauled to its corner lot on Pine Street . Up the street lived Mother Cooper and Randolph , her husband, and across the street, a bit, lived Walter and Millie Wright. One day while visiting the Wright's quaint and efficient home then occupied by them alone, their two children being grown and gone, I complimented them on its design. That was when Mildred told me that Walter had built their house. I was amazed. He then told me how he had looked in building books for directions and put it together from that. I quietly marveled at his skill, such skills are needed at Brooks Chapel to put on a roof and to put in a bathroom I mused, for it had no bathroom when I arrived in 1994, to my shock, my horror and disgust. The Zion United Methodist Church across the street, had a toilet. Its "member" Mr. Troy Burton, who attended Brooks Chapel each Sunday that I was there, opened its doors for our use, primarily my wife's predictable use two Sundays each month I was there to preach . My wife, Lyla's, use reinforced our own inadequacy, and my own! One day from the pulpit, after my having swatted away a hovering wasp that was wafting about my head, I said what was on my heart, "We need a bathroom! God blesses the child who has got his own!" Someone then replied, possibly Mr. Wright, "You need a roof first pastor. This one's about to fall in!" I quickly agreed with the speaker and we put together a building committee, who handled the major matter in a matter of a few weeks. Then, before I knew it, the same committee had dug a trench from the church to the city sewer line outside . I noticed the gravel and dirt strewn about the entrance and asked what it was . That was when and how I had learned that Walter Wright, Troy Burton, and, perhaps, others of their Briscoe Masonic Lodge had moved on from the roof to making a much needed toilet for Brooks Chapel AME Church family. "The people had a mind to work," in Brooks Chapel, Butler , Missouri! For we went on from the toilet to form the Amen Society . The Amen Society in 2009 erected a bronze statue on the court house square paying homage to the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry, who, in October 29, 1862, had fought (and won!) "The Battle of Island Mound," against 400 Confederate irregulars in the Civil War, before it was legal for Colored troops to fight for their freedom in "a white man's war!" Walter Wright is now President of the Amen Society that I founded years ago. Just 8 miles southwest of our statue, the State of Missouri in 2012, dedicated a 40-acre park site, where the history-making battle was fought. We had begun working on the project by God's grace in 1999. I had discovered the battle in the book, LIKE MEN OF WAR : BLACK TROOPS IN THE CIVIL WAR, 1862-1865 (1998) by Noah Trudeau in 1999. I told the church about it. No one knew of it. Therefore, we decided to honor the dead who had fallen in battle for freedom. We did big time! Walter and Millie Wright were right there; as was Mrs. Elnora Burton, Mother Cooper's daughter , church pianist and first Amen Society President. Oh what a mighty God we serve !BR