Updated: 7:08 PM EST Mar 5, 2021 Jane Robelot Soapstone Church on Liberia Road in Pickens County has a long and rich history, and thanks to its matriarch, Mable Owens Clarke, its future is brilliant, as well.Clarke is a descendant of a freed slave and one of the men who founded the church in the late 1800s. He and other former slaves now rest in the historic cemetery. Recently, Clarke welcomed two groups of young men from Clemson University to the church. They brought their shovels, and their muscles to free those graves of debris from last year’s storms. Two fraternities, Alpha Phi Alpha and Alpha Tau Omega, didn’t see one another often on campus – but on the grounds of Soapstone they formed a bond. They’ve gone back to Soapstone and it’s becoming a touchstone for forming new friendships. That is the joy of Clarke s heart, she says. Her mother and father rebuilt the church in just one year after it was burned down by Klansmen in the 1960s. She m