First Baptist Church (East Castle Street)

The Black congregation began in 1853 as a mission to Black people who came to church with their enslavers, served by a part-time sexton hired from First Baptist in Nashville. In 1857 Nelson G. Merry, called Pappy, left Murfreesboro ahead of an angry mob, after being publicly whipped and nearly lynched amid fears of an insurrection. When the church burned in 1939 the members rebuilt within the walls, and in 1954 urban renewal razed the building. In 2015 the Black and white First Baptist congregations held a joint Legacy Sunday.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church In the 1850s, Rev. Nelson G. Merry of Nashville preached to enslaved and free Blacks at home and in afternoon services at the white First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro. These services soon created the Black First Baptist Church. During the Civil War, the White Baptist church at Sevier and Spring stress was a military hospital, which left the building in shambles. In 1869 the White congregation allowed the Black Baptists to use the building, formally transferring the title in 1879. Led by Rev. N. B. Frierson, the congregation repaired the church, and worshipped there until fire destroyed it in 1940. Continued: Rev. William H. Donaldson convinced the church to rebuild. Urban renewals in 1953 forced a relocation to East Castle Street, where the church, through its community service and activism, became a modern Murfreesboro landmark. Revs. R. T. Sanders and Richard Gordon were among the city's most powerful voices during the Civil Rights Movement, a leadership role maintained by Rev. James M. McCarroll, Jr., who became the 37th pastor of the church in 2006.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 3.9 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 24 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 25 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 29 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.

More markers nearby

• Dr. James Robertson Patterson — 0.2 mi
• Mary Ellen Vaughan — 0.4 mi
• Holloway High School, 1929-1968 — 0.4 mi
• Union University — 0.4 mi