From Kentucky-
The Rev. London Ferrill spent much of his life serving as a bridge between Lexington's black and white communities. Now, 156 years after his death, he is doing it again.
Ferrill may have been the most famous man in Lexington you've probably never heard of.
Born into slavery in Virginia in 1789 and later freed, he was an influential preacher in the black community here. His funeral procession of nearly 5,000 people in 1854 was the second-largest the city had ever seen, after Henry Clay's two years earlier.
The Episcopal Church has invited First African Baptist Church to services Saturday honoring the memory of Ferrill, the only black man buried in the Old Episcopal Burying Ground on East Third Street.
The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the national Episcopal Church, will be among the speakers at the 1:30 p.m. service at Christ Church Cathedral on Market Street.
Choirs from local Episcopal churches and First African Baptist will perform, and the program will include a new composition that John Linker, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church's organist and choirmaster, wrote to accompany the text of a prayer attributed to Ferrill.
Ministers will dedicate the plaque for a monument honoring Ferrill that will be placed in the cemetery later this year. And Ferrill's broken tombstone formally will be given to First African Baptist, where it has been on display for two decades.
These and other efforts to commemorate Ferrill are an attempt at reconciliation, said Robert Voll, a member of Christ Church who oversees the cemetery.
More here-
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/02/21/1149657/after-156-years-this-bridge-stands.html
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