Author: FELC Office

Yes, you can get to FELC during the marathon!

The Austin Marathon returns on Sunday, February 18. Race day road closures will begin at 2 a.m., and may continue along the route as late as 2 p.m, depending upon location.  Pre-race day closures will occur downtown starting at 4 p.m. on Friday, February 16th on Congress Ave. between Cesar Chavez and 11th St.The route for the race will be similar to recent years.

While this makes getting to the church building more difficult, here’s the way to get to FELC:

• Use MLK exit from I-35 and turn west. There is no access to FELC from MoPac.
• Turn north on Trinity St. into the UT campus. It quickly becomes San Jacinto.
• Follow San Jacinto through the UT campus to Dean Keeton St.
• Turn left on Dean Keeton.
• Turn right on Speedway.
• Turn left on 30th St.

The Austin Marathon has published a comprehensive traffic guide which provides location specific information on how to access sections of the city during the event.  The traffic guide also includes links to church specific traffic guides that were created upon request.  Complete traffic information is available on the website at https://youraustinmarathon.com/traffic/.

The traffic guide may be viewed and downloaded directly using this link.

Livestream ministry also continues Sunday, February 18 at 10:00 AM at our YouTube channel.

You can participate in livestream worship on Sunday, February 18 at this link.

A Month Long Celebration

February is African-American History Month. Many significant events in African-American history occurred in the month of February. Each week of this month we are sharing historical information for each date. The source for this information is here.

On February 16:
Feb. 16, 1857 – Frederick Douglass elected President of Freeman Bank and Trust.
Feb. 16, 1923 – Bessie Smith makes her first recording, “Down Hearted Blues,” which sells 800,000 copies for Columbia Records.
Feb. 16, 1951 – New York City Council passes a bill prohibiting racial discrimination in city-assisted housing developments.

On February 17:
Feb. 17, 1870 – Congress passed resolution readmitting Mississippi on condition that it would never change its constitution to disenfranchise blacks.
Feb. 17, 1963 – Michael Jeffrey Jordan, famed basketball player and former minor league baseball player, born in New York, N.Y.
Feb. 17, 1997 – Virginia House of Delegates votes unanimously to retire the state song, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia,” a tune that glorifies slavery.

On February 18:
Feb. 18, 1688 – First formal protest against slavery by organized white body in English America made by Germantown Quakers at monthly meeting.
Feb. 18, 1865 – Rebels abandoned Charleston. First Union troops to enter the city included twenty-first U.S.C.T., followed by two companies of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers.
Feb. 18, 1931 – Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford), who will win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, was born on this day in Lorain, Ohio.

On February 19:
Feb. 19, 1919 – Pan-African Congress, organized by W.E.B. DuBois, met at the Grand Hotel, Paris. There were 57 delegates–16 from the United States and 14 from Africa as well as others from 16 countries and colonies.

On February 20:
Feb. 20, 1895 – Death of Frederick Douglass. Douglass was the leading black spokesman for almost 50 years. He was a major abolitionist, lecturer, and editor.

On February 21:
Feb. 21, 1895 – North Carolina Legislature, dominated by black Republicans and white Populists, adjourned for the day to mark the death of Frederick Douglass.

On February 22:
Feb 22, 1979 – Frank E. Peterson Jr. named the first black general in the Marine Corps.

A Month Long Celebration

Febuary is African-American History Month. Many significant events in African-American history occurred in the month of February. Each week of this month we will share historical information for each date. The source for this information is here.

On February 9:
Feb. 9, 1944 – Novelist Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Ga.
Feb. 9, 1952 – Author Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man wins the National Book Award.
Feb. 9, 1971 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Feb. 9, 1995 – Bernard Harris, African-American astronaut, takes space walk.

On February 10:
Feb 10, 1927 – Leontyne Price, who became an internationally acclaimed opera singer, was born in Laurel, Miss.
Feb. 10, 1964 – After 12 days of debate and voting on 125 amendments, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 290-130.
Feb. 10, 1966 – Economist Andrew Brimer is appointed to the Federal Reserve Board.

On February 11:
Feb. 11, 1961 – Robert Weaver sworn in as administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, highest federal post to date by a black American.
Feb. 11, 1976 – Clifford Alexander Jr. confirmed as the first black secretary of the United States Army.
Feb. 11, 1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from a South African prison after being detained for 27 years as political prisoner.

Feb. 12, 1865 – Henry Highland Garnet, first black to speak in the Capitol, delivered memorial sermon on the abolition of slavery at services in the House of Representatives.
Feb. 12, 1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. The call for the organizational meeting was issued on 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth by 47 whites and six blacks.
Feb. 12, 1948 – First Lt. Nancy C. Leftneant became the first black accepted in the regular Army Nursing Corps.

On February 13:
Feb. 13, 1923 – The first black professional basketball team, “The Renaissance,” was organized.
Feb. 13, 1957 – Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized at New Orleans meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. as president.
Feb 13, 1970 – The New York Stock Exchange admits its first black member, Joseph Searles.

On February 14:
Feb. 14, 1817 – Frederick Douglass, “The Great Emancipator,” is born.
Feb. 14, 1867 – Morehouse College organized in Augusta, Ga. The institution was later moved to Atlanta. New registration law in Tennessee abolished racial distinctions in voting.
Feb. 14, 1936 – National Negro Congress organized at Chicago meeting attended by 817 delegates representing more than 500 organizations.

On February 15:
Feb. 15, 1848 – Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, filed the first school integration suit on her behalf.
Feb. 15, 1851 – Black abolitionists invaded a Boston courtroom and rescued a fugitive slave.
Feb. 15, 1968 – Henry Lewis becomes the first black to lead a symphony orchestra in the United States.