Atlanta sermons on Obama to be archived

Years from now, historians researching the presidency of Barack Obama will be able to see and hear how his Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration played in pulpits across the nation.

Among them will be a sermon to be preached before Obama’s swearing-in. It will be delivered at the Auburn Avenue birthplace of the civil rights movement, Ebenezer Baptist Church.

“The presidency of Barack Obama is possible because of the path paved by Martin Luther King Jr. and those who worked with him,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Warnock, senior pastor of the historic Atlanta church that King led in the 1960s, said Sunday he plans to join congregations across the country to submit to the Library of Congress a video of his sermon on the eve of Obama’s inauguration.

The national library’s American Folklife Center recently launched its “Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Project.” It aims to collect audio and video recordings of sermons and speeches given at churches, mosques, synagogues and other places.

The addresses will be added to a collection of historic recordings and documents maintained by the library — from drawings by schoolchildren about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to interviews with survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack of Dec. 7, 1941.

David A. Taylor, who heads the folklife center’s head of research and programs, said the collection of sermons could have significant historic value.

“If a historian asks, ‘How did Americans react to Obama’s inauguration?’ we’ll have immediate responses to this powerful event,” Taylor told The Associated Press.

Warnock was one of several metro Atlanta pastors of large African-American congregations who have expressed interest in the project. He said he only heard about the project this past weekend.

Down the street, at Big Bethel A.M.E. Church, the Rev. Gregory Eason said he didn’t know about the Library of Congress project until a reporter told him. “We would consider it a significant honor to be included in this project,” he said.

Founded in 1847, Big Bethel is Atlanta’s oldest black church. Like Ebenezer, the congregation has hosted presidents and other leaders.

Other Atlanta clerics planning to submit sermons include the Rev. C.M. Alexander of Antioch Baptist Church. Like Eason, Alexander had been unaware of the Library of Congress project, but according to a spokesman is now eager to participate.

Information about the project can be obtained at www.loc.gov/folklife/inaugural/index.html.