Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

Futch talks with the Rev. Michael Cummings, director of the Burnt Swamp Baptist Association, about the history and extent of the churches in this largely Indian association and the similarity between church services at South Broadway Baptist Church in Baltimore and church services in Robeson County. South Broadway Baptist is one of 65 churches, all of whose membership is mainly Indian, in the association. The association began in the 1870s (for information, see The Lumbee Indians: an annotated bibliography (1994), items 388, 396, 400, and 415). Besides Lumbee churches, it encompasses Waccamaw Siouan, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, and Tuscarora churches in a 10-county area. Cummings notes changes in the outlook of the new generation of Lumbees in Baltimore. He also predicts that future pastors of South Broadway Baptist Church won't be recruited from North Carolina.