In the Archives: Rev. Kenneth Fisher ‘71
Trustees Rev. Kennth Fisher ’71 (left) and Charles Ellis Brown ’48 (Center) visit with Alumni Board President James Goins ’61 before proceeding into the Gold Dome for Centenary College’s 1987 Commencement ceremony.
Rev. Kenneth Fisher ’71, one of the first Black students to enroll at and graduate from Centenary College and a former Centenary Trustee, passed away on April 19, 2023. Centenary president Dr. Christopher L. Holoman and College archivist Chris Brown ’01 both spoke at Rev. Fisher’s memorial service at Centenary’s Brown Chapel on April 28, paying tribute to his extraordinary life and the ways that he enriched his alma mater.
I first met Rev. Kenneth Fisher in 2005 when I was fairly new to my archives job at Centenary and Fisher was new to his committee work as chair of the Commission on Archives and History of the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. As we began working together on various United Methodist archives projects, I was aware that Fisher was a trustee at Centenary. A bit later, I realized he was a graduate of Centenary, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Religion in May 1971. Later still, it dawned on me that his time at the College made him one of the pioneering Black students at Centenary. Fisher enrolled in fall 1967. Only one year earlier, the first Black undergraduate students opened those doors to Centenary; doors that had been closed since 1825…for 142 years. Even later, I realized that Fisher was ordained a deacon as a denomination-wide racial merger took place. That merger in 1971 formed the United Methodist denomination, and occurred for Louisiana United Methodists at Centenary’s newly-constructed Gold Dome. Rev. Kenneth Fisher was a trailblazer.
When Antoinette Fisher visited the Centenary Archives in late April 2023, she described to me the process of writing her father’s obituary. She said the family kept remembering things they wanted to include – military service activities, music organizations, awards. She said, “It’s like an onion. There are so many layers to my dad.”
Layers of the onion that I knew and appreciated were Rev. Fisher’s love of history and generosity with his time and support. I recall a video project that he helped create to celebrate 200 years of Methodism in Louisiana. I remember him encouraging congregations to celebrate their local church history and know that the Conference Archives existed and was available for anyone to use. There were also multiple times that Rev. Fisher helped Centenary better understand its own institutional history. This comes to me clearest when I think about his interviews on this campus. Some were large, open forums, such as when he participated in a discussion about his college days during Centenary’s Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Week for a big audience in 2016.
Others were smaller, like a one-on-one interview with Religious Studies student Kayla Marion ‘14 who wanted to interview one of the College’s first Black undergraduates for a class project. Twelve years after that 2011 meeting, she said, “I remember being nervous when setting up the interview, but once I talked with Rev. Fisher, the nerves quickly settled because he was so kind and eager to share his story with me. One thing that stood out to me about our interview was how animated he was when walking me through his time at Centenary. You could hear the passion and pride in his voice. I’m so grateful he took the time to share his story with me as it’s one that sticks with me to this day.”
Rev. Kenneth Fisher was generous with his time and made Centenary a better place.
While preparing my remarks for Fisher’s funeral in Centenary’s Brown Chapel on April 28, 2023, I ran across a Shreveport Times article from 2002. It’s titled, “The people of the yam: Saint Paul United Methodist Church marks heritage of African-Americans with special service.” The article reported, “The yam, the root so central to African American heritage was liturgized Sunday at St. Paul UMC in observance of Black History Month. The congregation used call-and-response readings to thank God for the sweet potato.” Then, there’s this quote from Fisher: “It’s important to celebrate our roots and the memory of the things that have kept us and nourished us as African transplants in this new world.” It’s that message of Rev. Fisher’s that I sought to lift up at his Centenary memorial service: “It’s important to celebrate our roots and the memory of the things that have kept us and nourished us.” I celebrate that Kenneth Fisher has nourished so many of us.
Click here to read Rev. Fisher’s full obituary.
— Chris Brown ‘01