A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

Items

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  St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church Board of Trustees

  A portrait of the identified members of the Board of Trustees of St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church. From front left to right are Brothers Harper, Barrier, and White. In the back row from left to right are Brothers Bellnavis, Benton, and Ward. All are dressed in their formal church attire and posed on the steps in front of the exterior front doors of the church.
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  St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church Select Board of Deacons

  A select Board of Deacon members from St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church pose for a photo. The bottom text reads, "BOARD OF DEACONS, PICTURED LEFT TO RIGHT: Deacons Byas. Gilmore. Howard. Jackson. Thomas. Ward, NOT PICTURED: Deacons Bell. Bennett. Benson. Cash. Mann. and White."
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  Portrait of Pastor Percy Harper at St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church

  Pastor Percy Jackson poses for a portrait inside St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church. He is wearing a red clergy robe and holding a bible in hand. "The fourth and current pastor, Percy Harper, started his Pastorate at St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church as interim pastor in July of 1987 when Pastor Williams passed away and was voted in as full pastor in April 1988" (Valley Truck Farms Scrapbook, 2019.)
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  St. Mark's Missonary Baptist Church Congregation

  Group photo of smiling churchgoers in their Sunday attire seated in the pews inside St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church. Deacons sitting in the front include far left Andrew Swanson and Mr. Etherly who lived on Norman Road (3rd from left). Ola McDowell is visible 4th row from the back on the right.
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  Pastor Freeman Williams and wife Mrs. Lucille Williams in formal attire

  A candid photo depicting Pastor Freeman Williams and his wife Mrs. Lucille Williams, dressed in formal attire and seated at a table.
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  Valley Recreation Center 1944-1946

  This photo represents the Valley Recreation Center, supported by federal funds during the Great Depression. In 1944 as St. Mark's Missionary Baptist outgrew its original sanctuary and began reconstruction, it met in this building from 1944-1946.
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  St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church goers standing during service

  During a church service, Donald Jackson and other churchgoers congregate at St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church. Churchgoers stand in the pews, likely participating in a service activity.
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  St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church Adult Choir

  Group photo featuring smiling adult choir members from St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church with Pastor Harper. The choir members are all dressed in their choir robes and are posed together in front of the exterior doors of the church building. Choir members include Right to Left front: Pastor Percy Harper, Agnolia Davis, Pauline Thomas, Erma Lee Golden, Darnell Ford, Vincent Jones, Patrice Wiliams, Trenice Williams, Delaney Jones, Walter Ford, unknown, David Hassen. Second row: Martha White, Mrs Marsh, Maggie Barrier, Eugenia Moore, Mrs. Carolyn Mann, Emma Macbeth. Second row and bacj unckydes frin keft ti rught: Sister Moltonh, Jeanette Howard, Sabina Benson, Pat Mann, Dolores Hassel, Sister Jeanette Ruffin, Rosa Lee Jackson, John Moore, Dudley White, Gerson Watkins. The back reads, "Hooks Photo 1215 West 11th Street San Bernardino"
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  St. Mark's Baptist Church Members in Formal Attire 1991

  In front of the imposing exterior of St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church, a group portrait captures Pastor Harper front far right in a light grey suit with smiling church members in their formal church attire. Congregation members include L to R in front: Serena Marshall. Beatrice Wilcots, Pauline Thomas, Jessie Douglas, Juliette Smith, Pastor Harper. In back L to R roughly Delany Jones, Rev Llewelyn, Lonnie Barrier, Charles Howard, Elvis Brown, Lindsey Lynch, Bill Jackson, Eugene Thomas, Bessie Shoulders, Sister Barrier. Middle roughly Lucinda Harper, Rosalee Jackson, Martha White, Audrey Armstead, Dennis Hackett, Jeanette Morris Howard, Sister Lynch. The back reads, "Hooks Photo 1215 West 11th Street San Bernardino. Date Nov '91"
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  Close up of Congregation of St. Mark's Missionary Baptist 1940s

  Formal portrait of congregation members from St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church, with men in suits and women in Sunday best and hats probably from late 1940s. We do not yet have identification for individual congregation members. On Back: C.W. McLaughlin 943 No Riverside Ave Rialto California
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  Church Service at St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church

  View from behind the podiums looking onto the congregation of St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church during a service. Churchgoers are seated in the pews listening to the sermon. The back reads, "Calvin Wesley Wilcox Free Lance Photographer 1749 Magnolia Turner 9-4664 San Bernardino, California"
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  World Wide Guild Group at St. Mark's Baptist Church

  World Wide Guild Group, a women's missionary group, standing in a line for a photo in front of the exterior of the first St. Mark's Baptist Church building. Imogene McMurray is 4th from the right. Other members as yet unidentified. The inscription on the bottom of the image reads "World Wide Guild Group, St. Mark Baptist Church, Edw. Streeter Photo." The back reads "Edward D Streeter Photo 4361 Grove Ave. Riverside Calif. Tel 4949"
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  Valley Truck Farms Scrapbook

  The Valley Truck Farms Scrapbook was edited by Alice Eby Hall and Roger Hall, completing a project begun by Valley resident Herbert Sims, to document the rich history of the Valley Truck Farms community. The Halls, who were from a rural white community went to school with Sims and many other Valley residents in the late 40s and early 50s at Sturgis Junior High School where they became friends. Alice and Roger Hall began helping Herbert Sims on the Valley Truck Farms book in the early 2000s after Roger Hall retired. There are chapters, photos and maps documenting the early history of the community, the causes of its recent transformation, the history of water, community churches, and schools in the Valley, including selected pictures of Valley residents who went to Mill school, Sturgis junior high school and San bernardino high school in the 1950s. The last half of the scrapbook features stories written by families of the Valley Truck Farms as well as compiled lists of families that lived on different streets in the Valley including the following families Saville, Bland, Jackson, the McDowell and McDaniels, Polee, McMurray, Green, Overstreet, Lockert, Harris, Harper, Curran, and Davis. The book juxtaposes images of the past and present to show the displacement of the rural community and traces some of the causes of the transformations that have hit the Valley over the last 50 years.