By Ron Allen, Correspondent, NBC News

ATLANTA -- Friendship Baptist Church is making a monumental decision as it celebrates its 151-year anniversary: It's one of two historic churches standing in the path of a new $1 billion domed football stadium that the Atlanta Falcons and the city want to build.

Determined to keep the NFL team downtown, Atlanta is negotiating with Friendship Baptist to move.

"I don't think [money] should even enter our decision-making. I really don't," said parishioner Juanita Jones Abernathy, whose late husband was a confidant of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "It's a landmark. I think it should remain. It's been there for generations, and it needs to be there for generations to come."

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Friendship Baptist dates back to the Civil War when slaves first held services in a train boxcar near where the church now stands. Its basement has been home to the famous historically black colleges Spelman and Morehouse.

 

For Abernathy, moving the church would be a mistake, "because that's our history," she said. "That's who we are."

'I'm going to use all my power as mayor'

The first offer was about $10 million, or about 10 times the appraised market value of the church and its land.

"It is something that we are looking at very carefully and prayerfully because we understand that this, in a way, is a once-in-a-lifetime decision," said Friendship Baptist board leader Lloyd Hawk, who has been a member for about five decades. 

When asked about the odds of selling or staying, Hawk responded, "I think the congregation right now is very open to possibilities and opportunities in discussion." 

Leaders at the other church being asked to move, Mount Vernon Baptist, chose not to answer questions about their negotiations.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says he's moving forward while listening to what the Friendship congregation asks and has to say. If both churches refuse to move, there is an alternative, though less desirable, site nearby.

"I'm going to use all of my power as mayor to make sure that Friendship Baptist Church locates just a short distance from where we are today. And they will be a stronger church, a stronger organization that is much more capable because of the millions of dollars that we are going to pay for that church," Reed said.

Atlanta Falcons team owner Arthur Blank declined an on-camera interview with NBC News. But in an email he echoed Reed, saying, "No one is interested in forcing the church off its property."

Blank also promised to invest $15 million in the communities near the new stadium. That is in addition to the hundreds of millions Blank say his family's foundation has invested or given to Greater Atlanta since the Georgia Dome was first built some 20 years ago. A bigger, brand-new stadium would bring both prestige and money, in addition to making Atlanta an attractive host city for the Super Bowl. 

Reed insists the churches aren't being pressured. 

"I've taken eminent domain off the table, so there's no threat or intimidation occurring here," Reed said. "If the majority of the members of Friendship don't want to move, the only thing you're going to hear from me is respect."

'I will follow them where they go'

After church on a recent Sunday morning, many parishioners at Friendship Baptist said they thought moving was inevitable.

"My heart said 'no,' but you've got progress. And progress is going to prevail no matter what," said Larry Dozier, a member for 25 years.

"I don't think it’s a trade-off situation," church-goer Pearl Logan said. "I think it's accommodating what Atlanta needs."

Member James Hilliard summed it up this way: "It will be sad, but I will follow them where they go."

Both congregations will make decisions in the coming week, with much thought, reflection and a lot of prayer.

By Ron Allen, NBC News  

The anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has pretty much completely withdrawn from public life. His health is a matter of constant speculation, rumor and mostly worry. There have been a couple of scares in recent years.  But on Wednesday, he celebrated his 94^th birthday, in a country where life expectancy is just 52: the latest remarkable accomplishment in one of the most remarkable lives of our times.

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We traveled to South Africa in late February for NBC News. There was word Mandela had been taken to the hospital, but not much detail beyond that.  Turned out it was what doctors described as a minimally invasive procedure for an enduring stomach ailment. You could almost feel the world let out a big sigh of relief.

 

The trip gave me a chance to explore a place I rarely visit.  It’s long been one of my favorite countries to explore: inspiring, intriguing, and one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see. 

South Africa's transformation

My first trip was almost 20 years ago, back in 1993. Apartheid was ending and soon segregation would no longer be mandated by law. I wanted to witness for myself what was left of such an incredible and notorious system of oppression.  Mandela was about to complete the journey from prisoner to president.  Fully democratic elections were about to happen. I’ll never forget that first morning when all South Africans were allowed to vote. The lines stretched for what seemed like miles into the morning haze. The “Rainbow Nation” was being born.

South Africa has come a very long way during the past couple of decades. But it certainly still has a long way to go. It is the largest economy in Africa, but not among the fastest growing on a continent talked about by economists as the next Asia, with many of the world’s top 10 fastest economies. About a third of South Africa’s 50 million people still live in poverty. Unemployment is about 25 percent, and double that for the black population, especially young people.   

We were especially curious about the so-called “Born Free” generation. Young people born since the early 1990s and the end of apartheid. Those born since Mandela became president are now young adults.  And they’re testing Mandela’s dream of equal opportunity for all against their own dreams. 

“The world is my stage. I can express myself the way I want to and have no limits,” said Tiisetso Lepelle, 17, a student from Wordsworth High School. She and her classmates were visiting Constitution Hill, near Johannesburg: a museum, court, and cultural center located in what used to be a prison notorious for its treatment of political prisoners.

'It's about me, and what I want'

Constitution Hill tells the story of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. But the next chapter of that story is all about Tiisetso and her classmates' generation. Many of them have expectations and a sense of optimism their parents, or even their older siblings, never dreamed of.

We asked what matters most in her country.  “It’s not about color. It’s about me, and what I want,” she said with confidence.

Over at Wits University in Johannesburg, we found a different take on things.

“I think there’s still a lot of racial tension,” said Alex Willis, an 18-year-old woman from a mixed race family. “I think that our children’s children, or our children’s children’s children might kind of get to see the day where that’s not an issue,” she added.  Alex, who is Caucasian and Indian, told us she doesn’t see a lot of mixing of people of various backgrounds and she sometimes feels like the odd person out.

Interestingly, her 20-year-old white classmate Michael Jordan, who she’s dating, saw things differently. 

"I think apartheid was terrible and I think we’re going to have the scars of those wounds for a long time," he speculated. "I think the majority of our attitude is, 'Let’s not dwell on the past because by doing that you can only stumble, you know, if you keep looking backward.'"   

South Africa is still a complicated and evolving society where race plays an enduring role in who gets what. For the most part, black South Africans control the government while whites control the country’s wealth and business.  It’s a stark divide that’s still so strikingly visible.  Whites live in the suburbs lined with high walls protesting their homes. Blacks live with much less. But there’s a small emerging black middle class: we saw one bustling shopping mall in the township of Soweto that could have been a small urban center with a large minority community in the U.S.  

And that’s what so many of the “Born Free” generation who we met aspired to, and more importantly expected, in their lives: success and self-determination. As they become adults and set out to make their mark on their country and the world, they’re determined not to let South Africa’s history hold them back.

 

Many passengers arriving at JFK airport in New York this morning were bewildered by the new security procedures... alarmed by word of a plot to blow up several airplanes over the Atlantic... and determined to get on with their travel plans. A lot of travelers hadn't heard about the ban on liquids and gels until they arrived. Then the scramble began to salvage toilet items like toothpaste, suntan oil and even water. It all sounded a bit surreal... until they were told liquid explosives were suspected of being the weapon of choice by the arrested British homegrown terrorists. The line stretched through the terminal. Even the baggage screeners were new to all of this. So as they sorted through personal belongings, the questions were relentless: "What about this medication?" I saw a prescription permitted on board, after careful documentation.

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All of this could be with us for awhile, because Homeland Security officials admit they don't have a method of detecting liquid explosives. Makes you wonder what else might be out there? The bottom line, officials are warning, is don't clutter up your bag with stuff you don't need during your flight. Check it. And everyone will have a much quicker and less challenging trip through security.