Today the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church of Norfolk, Virginia, an African American congregation, is officially founded, one of many black Baptist churches established this month. The church traces its origins to the antebellum period, during which time two slaves — Jacob Cargo and Elijah Lively — held prayers meetings in the Norfolk area. The Emancipation…
While all the armies of the Confederacy have surrendered by now, another small force of soldiers surrenders this day in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Shreveport served as the Confederate capital of Louisiana following the Union capture of Baton Rouge on May 29, 1862. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. the Calvary Baptist Church is in the news.…
Today Edgar Harkness Gray (1813-1894) becomes the first Baptist appointed as Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. A Vermont native, Gray was converted to the Baptist faith at the age of twelve. Following a period of schooling, he was ordained to the ministry and served churches in Maine and Massachusetts before accepting the pastorate of Washington…