Bethel AME Church
*Bethel AME Church in Reno, Nevada, is celebrated on this date in 1910. The church was a religious, social, and political center of Black settlers in the 1910s and later for local American Civil Rights activists during the 1960s.
From its inception, Bethel AME has held to the principles of the AME church to provide self-expression and fuller involvement in society as a means through which members could gain a sense of dignity and self-respect. Bethel AME Church has fostered social equality through its active role in the community, its direct link with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and its abiding dignity in the face of conspicuous and unrelenting discrimination. During the early 1940s, Bethel AME's minister, Rev. Emmer Henry Booker, corresponded with Nevada Governor E.P. Carville to promote racial equality.
In early 1941, Booker sought new quarters for the Bethel congregation, which wanted to expand its facilities to include a kitchen and social hall. The church proposed to purchase an existing building in the predominantly white area of northwest Reno, near the University of Reno and Reno High School. The University, the school board, and Gamma Phi Beta Sorority protested at a Reno city council meeting against the black congregation moving to that section of the city. Due to the protests, the congregation decided not to move to another building but to enlarge and renovate the existing church.
The clapboard church was sheathed in brick, the vestibule enlarged, and a full basement was constructed for offices, a kitchen, a choir room, a library and study, and a parlor. The events prompted the renovation of the building to reflect the civil rights struggle in Reno. Until the 1960s, Reno practiced non-legislated segregation; African Americans were restricted in housing and employment opportunities, were not served in white restaurants and bars, could not enter white casinos, or stayed in white hotels.
Many of Reno's NAACP chapter members, founded in 1919, were also congregants of Bethel AME, and the church acted as the official meeting location of the chapter. Drawing attention to the discriminatory practices of Reno's businesses and government, the NAACP branch led activities such as picketing the local Woolworth store in 1960. Today, Bethel AME Church is one of the most significant buildings in the State of Nevada, associated with its African American population and the 21st-century civil rights movement.
