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Organized in 1852, the Presbyterian Historical Society is the oldest denominational archives in the United States and serves as the national archives for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor denominations. One of the ways PHS shares the story of the American Presbyterian and Reformed experience is by providing access to records in our collections.

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PHS exists to collect, preserve, and share the story of the American Presbyterian and Reformed experience with Presbyterians, the scholarly community, and the public. Part of...

Mary Jane Patterson was born on February 12th, 1924, in Marietta, Ohio. At that time in southern Ohio, very few African American families lived there. Mary Jane spoke of this time fondly and noted that she was not very aware of race relations growing up because she lived in an integrated town. After her high school graduation, she moved to Columbus, Ohio, where her worldview changed drastically. It was her first encounter with more extreme forms of segregation, and she became more acquainted with the blooming civil rights movement taking hold in the 1940s. 

She enrolled in...