campebenezer

Is this like a fresh air camp? (Where inner city kids are giving a chance to camp in the great outdoors?)

this scene is amazing

So Lovely !!!!!!!

Thank you all for your comments! Camp Ebenezer was a fresh air camp in Holmes County, Ohio. It was founded in 1947 by Tillie Yoder, a young woman who grew up Amish but joined the Mennonite Church rather than becoming Amish herself. Yoder became aware of the pain of racial segregation when her African American friend, Ada Webb, was denied entry into Eastern Mennonite College. The two women attended Hessten College, where they were roommates. Tillie Yoder opened the camp out of her conviction that all people are equal in God's eyes.

Thank you for sharing this photograph. We've used it in our Black History Month blog post for 2024 www.flickr.org/black-history-through-archival-images-2/

Thank you for sharing this photograph. We've used it in our Black History Month blog post for 2024 www.flickr.org/black-history-through-archival-images-2/

Thank you for sharing this photograph. We've used it in our Black History Month blog post for 2024 www.flickr.org/black-history-through-archival-images-2/

I didn't know if there were other Tillie Yoders out there! It's not often you run into someone with the same name, Being from Ohio, there might be some family connection... I wonder!

Thanks for your comment, Tillie. I wondered whether you'd find "the other Tillie Yoder" -- the one who now lives in the archives. As a founder of Camp Ebenezer, which ministered to African American youth in the late 1940s, Tillie did some amazing and pioneering work as a very young person. A pretty cool namesake, no?