Wednesday marked the grand re-opening of Michigan Street Baptist Church, a former underground railroad site and an important landmark in African American History.
The interior renovations and restoration to the church, were due in large part to Senator Chuck Schumer who secured over $500,000 for the project.
Community and political leaders from all over Western New York came together to speak to the importance of this church reopening for public view. Among the leaders there were the Buffalo Niagara Freedom Station Coalition Chair Lilley Wiley Upshaw and New York State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes who shared their sentiments.
“There are lessons in the past of how we have triumphed as a people that will help to inform how we triumph as a people in the present and in the future,” said Upshaw.
“I still do take exception to the people who came in and did the research and tried to tell us that this was not an underground railroad site. I didn’t like that then. I don’t like that now. I feel the history of my people in this place,” said Peoples-Stokes.
Despite the re-opening future renovations are still on the way for the church. Free admission and tours of the church will be available this Saturday from 12:30pm-4:30pm.
