DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at Bethel Baptist Church tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Picture McAllen, Texas, 1936. Eugene and Georgia Hubbard look around and find — nothing.
Not one church in McAllen where African Americans could gather and worship. Now, most folks might've let that be the end of the story. The Hubbards decided it was just the beginning.
They established Little Bethel Baptist Church, right there on the corner of Fresno and 18th Streets. The name wasn't accidental — Bethel is Hebrew for House of God, and somebody knew exactly what they were buildin'. Rev.
R.P. Allen stepped up as the first pastor, and Eugene Hubbard, Andy Williams, and Will Earl Williams served as the first deacons. Four people holdin' up the whole thing.
Now, I want you to picture the accommodations on Fresno Street, because the marker doesn't let us look away. No electricity. No indoor plumbing.
And yet — and here's where the story earns its keep — Little Bethel became the center of activities for African Americans of that entire area. What they built inside those walls turned out to be bigger than the walls themselves. Then comes 1941.
The congregation moved to a new location, built the new church with their own hands, and when they did, they gave it a new name to match the new ground they were standin' on. Little Bethel became simply Bethel Baptist Church. The word Little had done its job.
They didn't need it anymore.
What the marker says
In 1936, when Eugene and Georgia Hubbard found no churches for African Americans in McAllen, they established Little Bethel Baptist Church on the corner of Fresno and 18th Streets. It was named Little Bethel as Bethel is Hebrew for House of God. Rev. R.P. Allen was the first pastor, and Eugene Hubbard, Andy Williams and Will Earl Williams served as the first deacons. Despite the church's humble accommodations on Fresno Street, where there was no electricity or indoor plumbing, Little Bethel became the center of activities for African Americans of this area. In 1941, the church was renamed Bethel Baptist Church when they moved to this location, and built the new church themselves. (2015)