“The mission of the Potomac Conference is to ‘Grow Healthy, Disciple-Making Churches,’” says Jose Esposito, Hispanic Ministries director. “In order for this to be concrete, leaders must have a spiritual lifestyle..."
That the legacy of Lucy Byard—who in 1943 was denied care from the Washington Sanitarium (now Washington Adventist Hospital) because she was African-American—would find such a generative expression in the successor to the hospital that failed to treat her is both appropriate and an indication of how her experience has shaped our history.
In ‘Memories of My Grandmother,’ Lucille Byrd (sic),” published in the North AmericanInformant, Lucy Byard’s step-granddaughter, Naomi R. Allen, wrote that Lucy “was a strong, energetic church worker.
Want to learn more of the history (than we share in the March 2019 issue) surrounding the Lucy Byard incident? See more historical photos and letters sent between the Washington Sanitarium and the Seventh-day Adventist Church executives regarding Byard’s incident.
News of Lucy Byard’s death sent shock waves through the Seventh-day Adventist Church, especially among its 16,000 African-American members. How did it lead to the creation of regional conferences?
Lucy Byard is one of the most pivotal figures in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Yet many have never heard of her, or have just heard her name in passing as the casualty of a tragic event somewhere in the safely distant past.
Charles Tapp, senior pastor of Potomac Conference's Sligo church, shares short messages in Keys to Practical Living, a CD of short messages from Sligo's radio ministry on WGTS 91.9.
