On Second Saturday, February 8, Montana Historical Society Historian Kate Hampton will present Lifting as We Climb: Union Bethel AME and Social Justice in 20th Century Great Falls in The History Museum’s Ozark Club at 1pm. Hampton will discuss the role of Union Bethel AME Church and its members in the struggle for civil rights during the mid-20th century and current efforts to preserve the building for continued use in the 21st century and beyond. The Union Bethel AME Church in Great Falls stands as one of the most significant properties associated with Montana's African American Civil Rights history.

Organized in 1890, congregants dedicated Union Bethel's current church, the sole historic purpose-built Black church in use in the state, in 1917. By the 1910s, Jim Crow infiltrated Montana's codes and Great Falls' local ordinances, placing restrictions on Black residents' ability to marry, work, and patronize businesses. Unofficial but pervasive policies placed many constraints on African Americans. White business owners barred Black patrons from their restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels. Labor unions forbade Black membership, excluding African American workers from the best-paying jobs. In response, Union Bethel AME became the center of Great Falls African American citizens' civil rights work for social uplift, education, and equality at the local, state, and national levels.

Kate Hampton is the Community Preservation Historian at the Montana Historical Society’s State Historic Preservation Office, where she works directly with local community preservation programs to document and preserve their cultural resources. Her past work includes several years with Preserve Montana as the Director of the Most Endangered Places Program, coordinating Montana’s National Register of Historic Places Program, and working throughout the West as a Research Historian with Historic Research Associates, Inc. She directs the “Montana African American Heritage Resources” projects which identify, research, and document resources and places throughout the state associated with African American history in Montana. She served as executive producer and co-writer of the documentary Hidden Stories: Montana’s Black Past. She authored The Best Gift: Montana’s Carnegie Libraries, as well as numerous book chapters, essays, and articles.