By Lesley Barker
Each week we introduce another famous Kentucky Christian as
an aspirational example for today’s Kentucky children. These men and women make
up what the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls the “great cloud of
witnesses”. They are people who were born in Kentucky, lived here and worked
here. Some were enslaved. Others were privileged. All of the Kentuckians we
feature gave public affirmation that they had believed and accepted the
Christian message and were living, as much as they could, in an active
relationship and submission to Jesus Christ. All of them have since died but,
their faith and their own words attest to the fact that they believed that
because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they could lay claim to an eternal life. The writer to the Hebrews envisioned the believers who had
preceded him in death as a cloud of witnesses who are actively watching what
the ones on earth are doing, deciding, enduring, suffering and expecting.
If we were to imagine a Kentucky cloud of such witnesses,
one grand-daughter of slaves, Emma C. Clement, would be there. She came to
Kentucky with her pastor husband after they both graduated from Livingstone
College in North Carolina. This school was run by the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) church. Credentialed for the ministry, the Clement’s
became the pastors of an AME Zion church in Louisville. They had seven
children, all of whom graduated from Livingstone College and became successful
in their professions. After her husband died, Emma Clement continued living in
Louisville, serving the church and her community. People who knew her called
her “the most church-going and charitable
woman ever”[1].
People noticed that her life matched her faith. She had a good reputation
with her friends and at her church. Other people found out about her. She
became known throughout the country. What made her famous? She did not discover
the cure for cancer or build an amazing tower or go to the moon. Her fame came
from her faithfulness to be a good mother to her children and a good example in
her church and community.
On May 1, 1946, Emma Clement became the first African
American woman to be named the American Mother-of-the-Year. The citation read: “A mother of children who are devotedly
serving their country and their people, a partner in her husband’s ministry in
his lifetime, a social and community worker in her own right.”[2]She
did not receive this honor in her own right. Instead, she accepted it “in the name of millions of Negroes in the
United States and in the name of all mothers”[3].
After she died, an elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia, was named the
Emma C. Clement Elementary School.
Emma Clement was a famous Kentucky Christian. Now, according
to her faith in God, she is in heaven where she can watch what today’s Kentucky
Christians are doing. Her story shows that faithfulness and integrity,
friendship and humility are rewarded. People notice these virtues on earth and,
if you believe what the Bible indicates, God rewards them in heaven. How do the
students in your Sunday School class or youth group want to be remembered? Does
this simple story of a famous Kentucky woman who was honored for being a good mother
inspire your students to set goals for faith, faithfulness and humility?
[1] Mildred
Europa Taylor. “Emma C. Clement Became the First Black American Mother of the
Year Award Winner on This Day in 1946.” Face2Face Africa. 2019. ONLINE at https://face2faceafrica.com/article/emma-c-clement-became-the-first-black-woman-to-win-american-mother-of-the-year-award-on-this-day-in-1946.
ACCESSED 10/21/2020
[2] Ibid.
[3]
A.A. Dunnigan. “News From Our File: 50 Years Ago”. The Fascinating Story of Black
Kentuckians. ONLINE at African American Registry. https://aaregistry.org. ACCESSED 12/5/2019
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