National Endowment for the Humanities Funds Research on Black Faith in Wakulla County, Florida
A research team, supported by a Public Humanities Program Grant from Florida Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, is conducting an in-depth study on the impact of Black spirituality and faith in Wakulla County, Florida. The project, titled 'REVIVAL: Where Black American Spirituality Lives, Breathes and Moves,' focuses on long-standing institutions such as the nearly 200-year-old Mount Trial Primitive Baptist Church. This church was established by formerly enslaved Africans and Black Indians after emancipation and also operates the 10-acre Buckhorn Cemetery. Researchers are collecting over 300 oral histories, documenting storytelling, music, worship traditions, and community archiving to understand how spiritual practices shape identity, belonging, and cultural memory across generations in Black communities. The team includes Isis Jones, director of REVIVAL, Neal Lester, a foundation professor of English at Arizona State University, and independent scholar Randy Nelson.
