Hastings community remembers Black church destroyed by arson in 1907

Dozens of people gathered in Hastings Sunday afternoon to learn about a local Black church that was set on fire over a century ago.

Nobody was ever charged in connection with the fire.

The Hastings community came to First Presbyterian Church to remember history that happened blocks away.

Building Remembrance for Reconciliation, nonprofit, organized the event called “Breaking the Silence: Remembering Brown’s Chapel AME.”

Davu Seru’s family roots run deep in Hastings. In the 1800s, his family, The Wallace’s, settled in Minnesota.

“I’m here to honor my ancestors. Without them, there would be no me,” Seru said.

In July of 1892, Seru’s ancestors opened up Brown’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal congregation (AME) in Hastings. The church became a pillar and safe space in the black community.

“Former enslaved people were coming up from the south and elsewhere to make a life too. A lot of racialized violence happened,” Seru said.

In October 1907, historians say Brown’s Chapel was destroyed by arsonists. There’s no record of the crime being investigated and those involved were never identified or charged.

The church never reopened.

“Painful, certainly, but there’s not much else we can do except willfully forget and that is no good for us. That’s unhealthy,” Seru said.

Brown’s Chapel was located on 5^th and Sibley in Hastings. Historians explained after the church burned down, the black community left the area and they didn’t come back for decades. “We really want to break the silence because the story wasn’t being told. People didn’t know really even know about the black community, those of us that grew up here,” Heidi Langenfeld, local historian, said.

Langenfeld is a historian that combed through pages of history to help piece together what happened in Hastings.

She said addressing the past can help people heal in the present. 

“We need to be able to look back and be honest about our history and hopefully make some resolutions or plans to change how we behave and what we do moving forward,” Langenfeld said.