Sylacauga

Jennings went into the ministry not long after graduating from high school and hasn’t strayed far from his birthplace of nearby Sylacauga, where he leads Vision of Abundant Life Ministries, a small, nondenominational church, when not doing landscaping work or selling items online.

Jennings went into the ministry not long after graduating from high school and hasn’t strayed far from his birthplace of nearby Sylacauga, where he leads Vision of Abundant Life Ministries, a small, nondenominational church, when not doing landscaping work or selling items online.

Earlier this year, Amanda had invited Mr. Jennings, whose congregation at Vision of Abundant Life Church in Sylacauga comprises about 20 people, to her son’s graduation party later in the summer, Mr. Jennings said.

Still, Benjamin Baker, 27, of Sylacauga, Alabama, called Jackson’s confirmation “monumental” and said it was for all the Black women who had come before her.

In Alabama, an apparent tornado shredded a metal building and the city of Sylacauga received more than 8 inches of rain overnight.