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Pray. Pray. Pray. These words are repeated over and over on every page of the book Light in the Dark Belt, the autobiography of Dr. Rosa Young.

Known as “the mother of Black Lutheranism,” Rosa was born in 1890 into an extremely poor Black family of ten children in rural Rosebud, Alabama. “Home” was a small log hut. Her father, a farmer and a preacher in the local church, taught her about God. She also read the Bible, the one book in her home. She was a very bright student who excelled at her small, rural, Black elementary school, rising early to work in the field before school and returning to the field each afternoon until nightfall. In the evening, she taught her younger siblings what she had learned that day.

She prayed to the Lord constantly, especially about her desire to attend high school, promising God that she would use her education to serve Him. At age 13, she picked cotton for a whole summer, earning enough to pay for her first year of high school. Graduating number one in her class, her valedictory address encouraged her classmates to give light to those in darkness and to befriend the poor and needy.

At age 19, Rosa began her life’s work as a teacher, starting with the children in Rosebud. She taught them to read and write, as well as the Lord’s Prayer and Bible verses. She organized mission societies in the area and walked door-to-door, asking for money from wealthier white neighbors to start more Black schools. Despite suffering from many serious ailments, which at times prevented her from working, she kept moving forward, drawing her strength from God. 

Rosa was disturbed by her church’s teaching that people needed to earn their way to heaven. She believed this was a man-made doctrine rather than a biblical truth, so she prayed about it. When she needed to close one of her schools but could not find a buyer, she asked for help from the Black community’s great leader, Dr. Booker T. Washington. He directed her to the Board of Colored Missions of the Lutheran Synodical Conference (a coalition of Lutheran bodies including The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod). Through this association, Rosa and others learned that salvation cannot be earned but is received only through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a result, Black people in Alabama and beyond, mostly through word-of-mouth, were introduced to the pure Gospel of Christ. God answered Rosa’s prayers, leading the people out of darkness into His light of grace.

In the following years, thousands of Black people flocked to Lutheran churches in Alabama. Rosa conceptualized the building of a Black college in Selma, administered by the LCMS. From 1922 through 2018, Concordia College Alabama educated thousands of men and women who later worked in the church, spreading the pure Gospel of Jesus crucified and risen. In 1961, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. The seminary currently offers a scholarship in Rosa Young’s name.

Rosa’s great-niece, Kaye Wolff, an active worker in the ministry of the LCMS, recalls that her mom was taught by Rosa. Kaye commented: “As Rosa taught my mom, my mom taught me, and I taught my children.” Rosa’s legacy of sharing Christ’s love continues to be passed on to future generations through the families she taught, as well as through the many schools that were started through her prayerful efforts to serve the Lord. 

The First Rosa, a free movie about her life, can be found at The First Rosa.

Go to Rosa Young Autobiography to read her autobiography, Life in the Dark Belt (free).

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