Rebuilding burned church is a first step: Alabama small town has two of everything, one Black, one White

National Catholic Reporter, August 23, 1996 by Martha Honey

A handful of Alabama whites have joined the reconstruction project, but none from Greene County. Some local white churches have, however, collected funds and sent meals to the work sites, and the Eutah Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a dinner for the volunteers. Only Buddy Lavender, Boligee's controversial and loose-tongued mayor, has voiced public opposition to the Quaker construction project. "Some of those who have come to rebuild are outside agitators," says Lavender, 67, who dresses in camouflage overalls. "They have caused a lot of friction among the races with what they're doing."

On Sundays the volunteers worship with the tiny congregations from the burned churches at makeshift locations. Charlie Means, 33, a deacon at Mount Zion Baptist Church, says, "You can't imagine walking into your Sunday school and seeing 15 blacks and 25 different white people, all feeling the same Holy Spirit. I can do nothing but thank God that I'm alive in 1996 to see this happen. Dr. Martin Luther King said many times that he had a dream. But I'm one of the people among the living that is seeing his dream become a reality."