Third Ward church’s stained-glass windows hold history lessons
The stained-glass windows that line the walls of Trinity United Methodist Church on Holman are vibrant works of art that tell the story of survival. They are mesmerizing to behold while sitting in a pew with praying hands on Easter Sunday.
When the sunlight hits them just right, the rich hues almost dance across the chapel, creating a warm, inviting glow. Their vibrant colors help rejuvenate the human spirit while in God’s house, yet the intricacies of each window reflect the past of the church and Black people.
Look closely. They are windows to history. And nearly all of the characters depicted in the windows are Black men and women.
“We wanted our Black children to see something they could identify with. This is our legacy, our history and our belief and relationship with Jesus. This helps us define who we are,” said Anita Lee-Punch, the church’s historian.
Trinity, the oldest Black church in Houston, was formed in 1848 by enslaved men. It has been located at Live Oak and Holman streets in Third Ward since 1951. The windows were created in the 1990s by artist Jean Lacy, who lived more than 40 years in Dallas and died in March at age 90.
The Texas Historical Commission awarded the church a historical marker as the oldest continuously organized Black congregation west of the Mississippi River.
Lacy’s panels tell the story of the Bible from creation to crucifixion, depict the civil rights movement and relate the history of the church and the generations that make up its membership.
The “Civil Rights” window shows Rosa Parks with a symbolic bus, while two students of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of the early 1960s are on bended knee. A water fountain represents racial segregation, in which Black people could only drink from designated fountains. Then there’s Martin Luther King Jr. at the Washington Monument and James Farmer, a civil rights activist who organized Freedom Rides in the 1960s that protested against segregation.
The “Black Women” window shows three Methodist missionaries, along with civil rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune, abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and Texas suffragist Christia Adair. In 1973, a Houston city park was named in her honor. The “1917 24th Infantry” window honors the 13 Black soldiers of Camp Logan’s 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry, who were hanged for retaliating against police brutality under the harsh Jim Crow laws. Memorial Park now sits on the site of Camp Logan. In the panel, two soldiers appear; one holds an American flag.
The “Ancestor Quilt” win dow captures an elder, who is the keeper of the history, holding a quilt that symbolizes the history of the people. On one side there is a Texas map with railroad tracks and footprints indicating the Black migration to Texas. An oil lamp and Bible are symbolic of how Black people learned to read.
The windows were initiated by a late church member who left $2,000 in his will for the project. The church raised the rest of the money needed, and the windows took about a year to create.
Each panel is its own story and history lesson.
Lee-Punch said she’s been attending church at Trinity United Methodist since she was a child, and its history has been a grounding force in her life. The church was instrumental in the founding of Wiley College in 1873 and in the organization of Texas Southern University.
“I can look at these beautiful windows and reflect about the struggles of our ancestors so that I could have a leg up. They came out of bondage and built a church,” she said.
“When it feels like I can’t do anything, I sit here in this church with these windows and have a feeling of wellbeing and rejuvenation. I can hear God.”