Many Baptist churches of the South yet lie in ruins or at least disrepair, a byproduct of the recent war, perhaps none more so than in the state of Virginia. Today’s Richmond Daily Dispatch carries an article about one such church. “The Rev. Mr. Taylor, a native of Richmond, and pastor of the Baptist Church…
Today in Texas — the lone Confederate state whose governor, Sam Houston, had resisted secession — a new Baptist congregation is birthed. The new church is the Mount Calvary Baptist Church, later known as the First Baptist Church of Richardson. The congregation is established before that of First Baptist Dallas. Church records note that members…
This month the Ku Klux Klan begins taking shape in the Pulaski, Tennessee law office of Thomas M. Jones. The six men who establish the KKK maintain long-held beliefs, as do most white Southerners, in white supremacy and black servitude. Union efforts to bring equality to freedmen further fuel their anger. From this mix of…