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12
May 30, 1996 AUGUSTA FOCUS
Minister remembers a distant past
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
The Reverend Lacey J.
Cochrane sat back in his chair,
closed his eyes, and remembered
atime when Emancipationdidn’t
mean a whole lot in Marshall
County, Mississippi.
He lived with distant relatives
in a hut made of mud, red clay
and cement, slept on a mattress
made of croker sacks and stuffed
with leaves, cooked in a hanging
pot over an open flame. Peas,
mostly — both meals of the day.
He ground his own corn for
cornbread that he cooked on the
hearth, and sometimes he was
able to get a slab of fatback to
season his peas. On Sundays, a
neighbor gave him two biscuits,
since he didn’t know how to cook
them himself. Sunday morning,
he would eat one with the eggs
he foraged from the chickens that
nested in the woods. The other
biscuit, he hid, nibbling on it the
rest of the week, finishing it off
on Saturday. He buried his ice
and milk in a five-foot-deep hole
to keep them cold and out of
thieving hands.
The Reverend cackled, remem
bering times when, having seen
a neighbor burying food, he
sneaked back after dark and took
it for himself. “It wasn’t right,”
he said, “but it was survival.”
He and his neighbors depend
ed heavily on the land for their
mealsand, most ofthe time, there
was barely enough.
“My deserts,” he said, “were in
the summer months: blackber
ries, plums, peaches, watermel
ons and canteloupes. In the fall,
I would,search for walnuts and
chestnuts for refreshment.”
He was an orphan by default:
His mother died when he was
just a few weeks old, and his
father lived on another planta
tion so he saw him only rarely.
Again he closed his eyes, remem
bering plantation life.
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The Reverend Lacey J. Cochrane
"My deserts,” Rev. Cochrane said, “were
in the summer months: blackberries, plums,
peaches, watermelons and canteloupes. In
the fall, | would search for walnuts and
chestnuts for refreshment.”
“I got many a whipping,” he
said, describing how “the Boss”
would give him an area to plow
inthe morning and ask him about
it that night. If he had finished
only three quarters of an acre
instead of the whole thing, it
meant a trip to the barn.
Just notbeing able to work fast
enough wasn’t a good enough
excuse for not finishing an area.
Having to go to the bathroom
wasn’t a good enough excuse to
take a break. The Reverend held
his hands about three feet apart.
“He had a whip about this big,”
hesaid, adding that he would get
10 lashes if “the Boss” thought
he wasn’t trying hard enough,
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Join us at
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Rev. Kenneth B. Martin, pastor
Corner of Augusta Avenue & Florence Street
1454 Florence Street - Augusta, Georgia
724-2809 Church Office
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SERVICES
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~ Every first and third Sunday - 6:30 p.m.
][ &fl) ernac fl €
Baptist Church
Dr. C.S. Hamilton, Minister
1223 Laney-Walker Bivd.
Augusta, Ga. 30901
Church School 9:30 A.M. * Morning Worship 11
A.M. Broadcast Hour (WTHB 1550) * Nursery,
Kindergarten Open * Bible Study-Tues. 6 P.M.
Prayer l\'%ecting Tues. 7 P.M. - Dai{y Kindergarten
Services 7 A.M. to 5 P.M.
Wednesday i
NOGH SRVIER. i DD
Prayer Service & Bible 5tudy............7 p.m.
Spir it Church News
five if he believed he had tried as
hard as he could. “Sometimes
the blood would come out,” he
said. And sometimes members of
his family would be present, un
able to door say anything for fear
“the Boss” would “get them, too.”
Hewasabout 10 or 12 yearsold
in those days, he said.
Butyoung Lacey Cochrane saw
beyond his surroundings and the
life he was forced to live. Though
“the Boss” wanted him in the
field by sunup, the lure of the
schoolhouse — where the kids
huddled on hard benches around
awood stovein the winter — was
too much for him. When he
turned up missing, “The Boss”
would come and kick in the front
door of the classroom.
“You got a nigger boy in here
named Lacey?” he would demand
of the frightened teacher.
The Reverend shook his head.
“I knew what he was going to do
to me, and go to crying, you
know.” But, he said, in a few
weeks’ time, he would be at the
schoolhouse again, huddling with
the other kids on one of those
hard benches.
One day the postmaster of
Waltford, Mississippi — a man
by the name of P.B. Robinson —
offered him and about nine other
black teenagers on the planta
tion a chance to attend summer
school at Rust College during
abreak in the farm work that
lasted from May 15 to June 1.
Rust offered a high-school as well
asa college curriculum, and held
regular summer classes for farm
kids. To his surprise, the Rever
end said, he was the only one in
the group who took advantage of
the offer.
“From that very first day they
started calling me Uncle Tom,”
he said. He attended the sum
mer sessions three years.
His chance to leave the planta
tion came in the form of a black
Presbyterian seminary preach
ernamed Dr. Albert Baxter, who
was scouting the South for sem
inary recruits. Young Lacey
Cochrane was nothing if not de
termined. He went to hear Dr.
Baxter speak, dressed in cover
alls, tennis shoes, his blue work
shirt, and a string for a tie, every
inch of him covered in dirt from
the field. He sat right up in the
front row, he said, mesmerized
by the service. Afterward, Dr.
Baxter asked what he had in
mind.
“Well I want to be a preacher,”
young Lacey Cochrane said. “I
may not ever be a preacher ... I
may not ever be anything.”
“Why not?” Dr. Baxter wanted
See PREACHER, p. 13
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THE AMEN CORNER
B The Good Shepherd Summer Enrichment Program for”
children will run from June 10 - August 2, 1996, from 8 a.m. to 4:3o‘i
p.m. Registration forms may be picked up from the Good Shepherd"“
Baptist Church, 1505 Sunset Avenue. For more information, please’
call the church office at 733-0341. e
W “Rally in the Valley III” will be held on Saturday, June 1, atf
Harrison-Caver Field in Clearwater, S.C.,beginning at 10a.m. Over"
20 local churches will work together to provide a full day of fun,”
entertainment and Christian fellowship, including children’s games,"'
gospel music and other events. Food and concessions will be"
available. Harrison-Caver Park is located on Highway 421 in”
Clearwater, S.C., approximately five miles from Augusta. For more’
information, call (803) 593-9853 or 593-5543.
B The Augusta Mass Choir will sponsor a free car wash on"
Saturday, June 1, at the Texaco gas station on Washington Rd. at I-*
20. The choir is going to NYC in August, and this is a way for’
members to raise money for their trip. Cars will be washed"
absolutely free since members have sponsors who will pay for each
car that is washed. The more cars they wash for free, the more'’
money they earn towards their trip. 4
B Walker Baptist Association of Avera, Ga. will hold a Con};
gress of Christian Education board meeting on Saturday, June I,*
beginning at 9:30 p.m. at the Walker Baptist Center. A Women and
Brotherhood Convention will be held on Saturday, June 15, begin- |
ning at 9:30 a.m. Church registration will be $25. The convention
will also be held at the Walker Baptist Center. Note: all delegates.,
of the meetings must pay $3 to cover the cost of any meal at the ,
Center. i
M Beulah Grove Community Resource Center, Inc. isholding |
its Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, June 5, at 5:30 p.m.
The meeting will be conducted at the Resource Centor at 1446
Linden St. o
B St. Mark United Methodist Church, 1296 Marks Churchßd.,
will sponsor their annual Men’s Day Program on Sunday, June 9, at |
11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Guest speakers will be Mr. Harvey L. Johnson
at 11 a.m. and Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of Victory Baptist .
Church in Atlanta at 5 p.m. Call the church at 733-3194 for more
information. Reginald M. Copeland is pastor.
B Macedonia Baptist Church, 1828 Wrightsboro Rd., will hold
Vacation Bible School from June 10 through June 21. Kindergarten
through adult classes will be held each evening at 6 p.m. For more
information, contact the church at 737-6834. Rev. J.S. Wright is
pastor.
B The Old Storm Branch Baptist Church, Clearwater, S.C.
will hold arevival beginning Monday, June 3 - Friday, June 7, at 7:30
p.m. nightly. The evangelist for the week will be the Rev. S.C.
Cureton, vice president at large for the National Baptist Conven
tion, Inc. and pastor of Reedy River Baptist Church in Mauldin, S.C.
Rev. Nathanel Irvin is pastor.
Fans, come out and celebrate V-103/WAQOK Church Night
at the June 25th Braves/Cardinals game. We'll have a special
guest singing the National Anthem, plus the first 10,000
fans will receive a $5.00 cash card compliments of the
Atlanta Braves and First Union.
For groups of 30 or more call 404/614-1561 or 404/614-1325
For single game tickets call Ticketmaster at 800/326-4000
Catch the Braves on the internet at http:\\www.atlantabraves.com
