—Heritage Trails Enrichment Program —
Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church
Established approximately during the 1850s, Spring Hill Missionary
Baptist Church is the oldest African-American Church in Tupelo, The
original sanctuary, still standing today, was completed in 1921 and is one
of the oldest surviving church buildings in Tupelo, having survived the
devastating tornado of 1936. As Journalist Terry Marsh wrote in 2008,
The Black Church, established because of the necessity to create a
place of worship separate from whites, became significant as an
organized body where opposition concerning the treatment of its
congregations could be voiced, It progressed from a place of spiritual
healing, to one of social and political awareness, creating a litany of
protests advocating rights afforded by the U.S, Constitution." Spring Hill
Missionary Baptist Church has been that place of worship for many years
and has also been an advocate for the rights of both its congregation and
the African-American community.
A Strong Voice in the Civil Rights Struggle in Tupelo
During the Civil Rights era, under the leadership of the Reverend E. Page, Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church served as a voice for the struggle of this areas African-Americans. The church opened its doors for meetings
of the United League, Freedom Marchers, NAACP, Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), and area citizens. This allowed those groups to voice their dissatisfaction with voter registration, segregation of schools, local facilities and stores, police brutality, unfair hiring throughout the city and all practices that were denied to African-Americans simply because of the color of their skin. Civil Rights marches in 1976 and 1979 began at this historic site, Gathering at the church, 300 - 400 demonstrators joined in song and prayer before they began these marches down Green Street to Downtown Tupelo.
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