The Mount Pleasant Home Protection Society also known as” MPHPS” was established in February of 1922 by Mr. Robert Kirk. He was the proprietor of several acres of land of which he donated one acre to plant cotton near Mount Pleasant CME Church in Knoxville, Greene County, Alabama. During this era , there were little or no mortuaries in rural areas that would take care of the deceased for people of color. Without mortuary, they had little or no means to embalm or preserve the bodies. There were no coffins to place the deceased. Their bodies were often times placed in a hole dug in the ground. The society was created in response to the immediate need for a respectful and honorable site for the burial and final resting place for their loved ones. Upon the sale of the cotton crops, materials were purchased to construct boxes for those deceased. The lack of decent burial grounds was a direct result of the rampant and public racial discrimination and segregation in the South. “Jim Crow” was ” real and vivid”.
