Making a difference
The call came early on Nov. 5, 2008, telling Bishop Bryant Robinson Jr. that his new church was ablaze. Only hours before, Barack Obama had been elected the nation’s first black president. Now Robinson’s nearly completed church, home to a largely black congregation, was burning like a matchbook, the flames lighting the night sky. The fire, which prosecutors say was set by arsonists angry at Obama’s election, was on Robinson’s mind as he addressed a group of Harvard undergraduates on a warm spring afternoon outside the Macedonia Church of God in Christ. The church in Springfield, Mass., had risen again, with their help. Forgoing a week at the beach or at home, the students joined the annual Alternative Spring Break trip sponsored by Harvard’s Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) to help rebuild churches destroyed by arson. During their week on-site, the volunteers helped to paint almost the entire interior of the 18,000-square-foot...