Zion Baptist Church

Front: Zion Baptist Church first organized in 1865 and met in a humble dwelling on Gadsden St. The congregation moved to this site in 1871. The current sanctuary, the second on this spot, was built in 1916. Zion Baptist has long served as a center for community organization. Both the Women’s Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of S.C. (1888) and the Women’s Auxiliary to the Gethsemane Baptist Association (1919) were founded here, as were other important missions. Reverse: In 1930 Dr. Matilda Evans, the first African American woman to have a practice in the state, started a free clinic in the basement of the church. It served 700 patients on its first day. On March 2, 1961 over 200 African American students met at Zion Baptist before beginning their march to the State House to protest racial segregation. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the convictions of those students arrested during the march in the case Edwards v. S.C. (1963).