Prior to this month, the only African American Baptist churches in the state of Missouri are located in St. Louis, Hannibal, St. Joseph, Jefferson City and (possibly) Lexington. Now, a new church joins this short list: the First Colored Baptist Church of Warrensburg. Many other black Baptist congregations are also birthed this month, including the…
Prior to the war the Madison Baptist Church in Georgia, like many other congregations in the Deep South, had almost as many black members as white members. Most, if not all, black members were slaves, their presence forced by their masters and policed by white church members. In 1859 a new church sanctuary was constructed.…
Sam Richards, an Atlanta businessman and Southern Baptist who fled the city for New York following Sherman’s capture of the city, today arrives back in Atlanta. Like many other middle class white Southerners (of whom there are relatively few, actually) who did not serve during the war, whether having temporarily lived in the North or…