This is a 150-year-old church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

A.M.E. Church is about social justice, and we serve the community, whether it's food, whether its housing or whatever is needed.

It was a time back in 1800s, our founding pastor, Richard Allen, they were at the Methodist church, and they weren't allowed to sit in the congregation of the church.

The front of the balcony and the sanctuary was for white parishioners only.

And so Richard Allen decided that he's not going to have it that way.

He got up and motioned to all the other Blacks that were with him, and they walked out of the church.

And that's when they started the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

This used to be the parsonage where our pastor and their families lived.

When Blacks used to travel from state to state, there were times when we couldn't go to to the regular hotels, so there were specific places that catered to other Blacks.

So the Green Book was a book of safety for everyone.

So people, when they come through Colorado, they always look for an A.M.E. Church.

And do you see, weve got water damage from the roof.

When I went to the police academy in ‘77 in Pearl, Mississippi now this was 1977 I couldn't stay at the hotel where the other agents stayed at.

I had to go up the street to Mrs. Lalas Boarding House.

The A.M.E. Church, its a connectional church.

It gave me a feeling of being able to say, “Hey, I've been there, done that.

You will survive.

You will get over whatever trauma you're going through.” The Black calendars?

Yeah.

...made the posters and put the captions that was under the posters, printed them up so people could read them.

We got a grant, thank God.

[laughs] For the roof, the chimney and the outside of the church.

This here is a shelter for people, for our children and our grandchildren, they can say, “Oh, my dad been here!

My dad was here when the church was built!

My grandparents was here and my grandparents brought pews.

There's a lot of children that's all over Colorado and all over the United States that are from First A.M.E.

So we're trying to just beautify the Church so theyll be proud of it, and theyll have something to come back to.

[piano music]