by Daniel Johnson
January 14, 2024
Although he focused on his hometown of Missouri, Father Moses Berry became known nationally, with the New York Times describing him as a “one-man committee for racial reconciliation.”
On January 12, Father Moses Berry died in hospice after months of hospitalization. As KSMU reported, Berry, who was in his early 70s, was a prominent member of Missouri's faith community, culminating in the founding of the Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum. In a 2003 interview on the Ozarks Public Television program OzarksWatch, Berry told program viewers what motivated him to start the museum: “All of our friends encouraged us to start a museum. Well, we weren't quite ready for that, but I'm always moved by the African American saying that says, “Start before you're ready.”
Until 2013, Berry curated the museum, which documented the history of the city where he was born and the place where his ancestors lived. The collection has now been digitized by Father Berry's daughter Dorothy Berry and includes artifacts, some dating back to the 1830s. The collection includes quilts, furniture, portraits, horse equipment and toys designed to paint a picture of black American life, family traditions and rural life. The collection also contains some of the constraints of enslaved people's lives, including ankle chains, screw locks and neck irons.
Berry described the material conditions of enslavement during this 2003 interview, saying, “Well, I have this collection of handcuffs, shackles and chains from our country's slave era.” This particular piece is called a neck iron. It goes like this: You put this around your neck and this padlock, it's a lock called a screw lock, and the screw lock goes in this little hole, and that's how they secured the slave.”
Although he focused on his hometown and community, Berry became known throughout the country. The New York Times described him in an article as a “one-man racial reconciliation committee” because he shared both Black history and Orthodox Christian spirituality in his work. In 2022, Father Moses Berry was honored by the Eastern Orthodox Church with the highest honor bestowed on a priest: the Jeweled Cross. In 2023, Missouri State University inducted Berry into the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame, briefly mentioning his background and his work as a lecturer locally and nationally.
Berry went on a spiritual pilgrimage for most of his life, which eventually led him to return to the country where he was born. “It’s my home,” Berry said. “In fact, when I came back here it was almost like I had come to a mythical place. Because all of my best memories were created in this city. So it's kind of like a little Tom Sawyer, a town in Huckleberry Finn, and I grew up here. So the return was more than just the return home. And you know the old expression: People say you can never come home. I have found that this is not the case here.”
According to the Springfield News-Leader, Berry returned to Ash Grove after inheriting the family farm built by his great-grandfather in 1875. Berry's ancestors created the space after being freed from slavery following the Civil War. Part of the property includes a cemetery that has been renamed Resurrection Cemetery. Originally dedicated in 1875 to “slaves, Indians and the poor,” all groups who have traditionally been denied burial space in Missouri’s segregated cemetery system. Resurrection Cemetery is currently listed on both the National and Greene County Registers of Historic Places.
Father Ephraim Tauck told KSMU that Berry's funeral is expected to take place on the evening of Jan. 15 at Theotokos Unexpected Joy Orthodox Church, the Ash Grove church founded by Father Moses Berry. A specific date for the funeral has not yet been announced.
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