In the midst of secession fever in January 1861, the (white) First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee established a “Second Colored Baptist Mission” in Edgefield, east of Nashville’s downtown, on Fatherland Street. The mission church was supervised by a white committee and pastored by George Dardis, a free black preacher. Nelson G. Merry, free black…
This year, in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, the founding of African Baptist churches proliferates. Unfortunately, the details of the formation of many of these congregations are nebulous. According to one early source, the Fourth Baptist Church, African (later Metropolitan Baptist Church) is formed this month in the District of Columbia “by a few holding…
In Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1846, black Baptists were granted permission to worship under the supervision of white Baptists. Those worship services have been conducted in the Union Church building since 1846. Today, however, a lot on York Street is deeded to Peter Johnson, a trustee of the black church, on behalf of the congregation. Eventually,…