Back to top

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church

Thursday, December 16, 2021
Location: Twin Oaks, Delaware County


Org Focus: House of worship

Grant Funding: COVID education & vaccine clinics

Website: mountpleasanttwinoaks.org


Click here to download a PDF of this profile.


Based on an interview with Clifford Isaac, Deacon & Church Treasurer

When you talk about Black history here in the United States, it’s a litany of inequality. All of the factors that led to the disparities — redlining, lack of funding for education, general healthcare, nutrition, air quality in areas where Black and Brown people live — play a factor in why we lag behind when it comes to infant mortality or life expectancy. It makes sense that Black and Latinx communities were ravaged by COVID the way they were. It falls in line with the way things have historically been.
 

There was a lot of uncertainty about the vaccinations, a lot of reluctance among some members of our community because of the history we’ve gone through, things like the Tuskegee experiment. Our pastor, Pastor Robinson, thought it was important that we make people aware of what the real science is so they can make an educated decision.

One of the things that helped motivate people to get vaccinated, and it’s not a good thing, was that early on we had quite a few members who contracted COVID and passed away from it. It made it real for a large portion of our membership.Those people were mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, sons, daughters. If they had been able to get vaccinated, maybe they could still be here.

It is our obligation to lift as we climb. To try to move things in a positive direction in which everyone is encompassed in the American dream.
 

Do I think it’s going to happen in my lifetime? No. But I think we have to work to make things better. That’s what people before us, Black and white, have done to get us where we are. Is it perfect? No. But it’s up to us to keep passing that baton to the next generation.