CityView Magazine

30 June 2021 Edwards is pictured above with Ricardo Morgan, longtime member of First Baptist and the church's historian. Edwards "exemplified God's love," Morgan said. Edwards began his tenure at First Baptist when the church was located on the corner of Franklin and Max well streets before it moved to its current location on Moore Street. C.R. Edwards is in his early days at Spring Garden Baptist Church in Washington, N.C More Than a Preacher e Rev. Edwards didn't just perform wedding vows for young brides and grooms setting out on marriage unions of their own at First Baptist Church on Moore Street or pray for the sick or counsel the troubled or eulogize those lost. He involved himself in this community and stood as tall as that church steeple that overlooked the civil rights of black men and black women in the early 1960s, when they were denied access to restaurants, motels, hotels and relegated to "Balcony Only" in movie theaters and told to drink from "Colored Only" water fountains. e unrest was difficult. Dr. Edwards was tempered and steadfast. He was wise and prudent and rational. All men and women, he believed, were created equal and, no matter the color of their skin, there was no excuse for compromise. "You can't come in here," he stood on the church steps when two, young black protestors once sought refuge from city police in the throes of the Civil Rights protests in downtown Fayetteville. "If I am not mistaken, my father was a student at Fayetteville State University at that time," says the Rev. Victor Davis, who grew up along Barges Lane and later Eccles Park under Dr. Edwards at First Street Baptist Church and now serves as a pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio. "ere were several young men who found refuge at the church. Dr. Edwards stood on the steps with his hands in his pockets." And just as young black protestors rejected the Market House then and its history of selling black slaves, the Rev. Davis says, Dr. Edwards would not deny a historical landmark and its place in city history. e Rev. Davis is a disciple of his lifelong mentor. "It's a part of our history," the Rev. Davis says. "What does tearing down a Confederate monument or the Market House do? You can't erase they sold liquor on Barges Lane, either." When Dr. Edwards was elected to the N.C, House (1982-1990), and later the N.C. Senate (1990- 1994), the Rev. Davis worked with him in the General Assembly and remains grateful for all of his life's lessons. "He treated me as if I were his surrogate son," he says. "He gave me my mentorship as my pastor and spiritual leader. Dr. Edwards was one of those leaders who spoke truth to power, even at the King's table."

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