Bellamy family talk Mountain City history

The owners of Know Better Coffee are always happy to share the history of their building, specifically that it housed an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church from the 1900s to the 1960s. On March 2, three former members of that church — Ina, Flo and Rick Bellamy — stopped by to give a two-hour history lesson in front of a packed room. The conversation went beyond the church to what it was like living in Mountain City during segregation and integration, and with 12 siblings. The family lived on the hill to the east of Know Better Coffee, which Ina said was known as "Mountain's Bottom." She said many immigrants resided and worked there as bean pickers during the 1940s, when Johnson County was "the Green Bean Capital of the World." "Mom and dad were the storekeepers, the teachers and dad was the policemen for all of these people," she said. "They didn't come to the town for anything; the store had everything they needed." Flo said her father had two rules for his children: "You will go to church and will go to school." The result was that all 13 siblings attended college, with 9 of the 10 sons getting athletic scholarships. "Our dad ruled with an iron hand; he had to, to get us all to adulthood and into the real world," she said. Flo said that, before integration, they went to a small elementary school behind Burger King. There were only two teachers, her mother and Frenchie Whitby, and they taught first through eighth grade. Going to high school was a more complicated prospect; Black students in Mountain City had to be bused to a school in Elizabethton, Flo said. "We started out at 5:30 every morning. Our mother would get up at 3 o'clock every morning out and cook breakfast," Ina said. Ina estimated that around 200 Black families lived in the community back then. Flo said many left after integration because "as the world opened up to us, people moved on." Flo said she was grateful to see the AME Zion building restored because "so much of the life we lived as people of color no longer exists around here." Flo said the church's treasurer, Miss Hegler, would hold a social — often a fish fry or cook-out — for teenagers every Friday night at her house. The same woman also ran a beauty shop for people of color. When asked what the church sounded like, Flo said: "It was filled with joy." She wasn't afraid to mention some of the darker parts of the past. Flo described a time she was called a racial slur by white children while walking to her house. "I went up the street with my head down…and tears rolling down my face, she said. "Our dad had been watching me to make sure I was all right and when I got to him…he said, 'Don't let me ever see you with your head down. Be proud of who you are.'" In another instance, Flo lamented to her mother about being unable to drink from a fountain reserved for whites. Her mother told her, "Then you need to do something about it." Ina recalled when the first manufacturing plant came to the area, and she got a job; they built a separate bathroom and breakroom for her, which she eventually refused to keep using. "There are times I get so angry… I will say things I shouldn't say," Ina said. "But if I let that stick with me, then I can't exist. You got to walk away from things." Flo said "stick together" has always been the siblings' "survival technique," and their mother's dying command. Most of the siblings have left Mountain City, but all surviving 10 have a group call with each other. Their children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren also join the call. The siblings agreed that something that was much more common in the past that needs to be brought back is people watching out for each other's kids. "It takes a town to raise a kid," Rick said. "You can make a difference in their lives just by opening up with them, finding out what's going on in their world." With some assistance from the crowd, the Bellamys recalled the churches that operated out of the building after the AME Zion church closed in the late 1960s — first there was First United Methodist, then Mt. Zion Pentecostal Holiness, Mt. Pleasant and Heavenly Light. Flo made it clear that everybody should be a good neighbor, regardless of denomination and other differences. "There's a church on every corner in Johnson County, but were always God's children," she said. "We're always going to have misunderstanding, but I think it wouldn't hurt if we all stepped back and tried to look at a different perspective every day." The night's last audience question was actually a request. "Can we sing a hymn together that you used to sing here?" asked the woman. Flo led the room in singing "Amazing Grace." For those thirty seconds, it felt like a church filled with joy.