The Rev. Brigitte Black wasn’t in Bloomington-Normal for a long time, but she made her years in the Twin Cities count in ways that will be felt long after death.
A former corporate worker with a degree in industrial management from Purdue University, Black felt the call to ministry after several years in the workforce. She went to seminary, eventually earned her doctorate and began pastoring churches in Indiana and Iowa. She also served as a missionary in Ghana, the Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire.
Black was known for becoming active in her adopted communities — and she brought that energy with her when she came to Bloomington in 2016 to become senior pastor of the historic Wayman African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“With Rev. Black, you are perpetually and continually attached to something,” church steward Roddy Lynch recalls. “To be honest, there was a time where that probably was an irritation to me, like, ‘Hey, I’ve got another life.’ But after three years, it became routine. Everything she did was with a passion.”
Lynch said in the midst of many administrative responsibilities, Black never lost sight of the fact that real ministry lay within helping others. Sometimes, he jokes, it probably went a little too far — like when she bought brand new fishing equipment for two twin girls who told her they hadn’t had many opportunities to do things outdoors.
“I got there on a Saturday morning and Rev. Black had brought brand new rods and reels and we spent the day fishing. They were through with it after about two hours,” Lynch laughs. “They said, ‘Brother Lynch, you’ve got to let Pastor know this ain’t our thing.’ But that was who she was.”
Lynch said Black had a heart for youth — especially teen girls — but her advocacy was all-encompassing. When word came that vaccines for COVID-19 would become available to the community, she began advocating for special clinics focused on vaccinating Black seniors, a population particularly vulnerable to the respiratory illness.
Arlene Hosea remembers Black’s advocacy for such clinics and willingness to have them at Wayman AME Church.
“When we began talking about COVID-19, it was clear in our community that we were not approaching the need for a way to engage our Black senior population. … She helped people see it through the eyes of others who were not like them, or not from that community,” Hosea said. “She was gifted in that way.”
Black also sat on Bloomington’s Human Rights Commission and its citizen police review board. She worked alongside Not in Our Town, a social justice group, and the local NAACP, among other groups and organizations.
She died in April 2022 after battling cancer.
Hosea said Bloomington-Normal lost a “champion of the rights that we as people have.”
“Someone who believed in the human spirit, believed there was something that individuals had to give. She also believed that our society needed to be welcoming, open and understanding to everyone and that everyone had value,” Hosea said. “I think our community lost a brilliant, amazing person who, to this day, would be advocating in this community — and people would know her name.”
