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.