Natchez Trails

The original appearance of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church is visible in a ca. 1930 historic photograph. The church featured corner towers crowned with domes.Mt. Sinai organized in 1913 and built the church soon afterwards. Like most historic African American wood churches, Mt. Sinai was later brick-veneered.Standing in front of Mt. Sinai in Brumfield High School band director Woodrick McGuire who died in the 1940 Rhythm Night Club fire. McGuire lived across the street in the Wheaton-McGuire House. Zion A.M.E. Church No. 2 at 7 Quitman Street was originally a mission church built by Zion Chapel A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, which also operated Ward's Academy on the same site.The church with its twin towers and recessed entry porch is typical of many of the historic wood African American churches like China Grove Baptist Church on St. Catherine featured a single tower.Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church No. 2 is today the most architecturally significant of the historic African American wood churches because it is the only one that retains its original architectural character and detail. Most of the others have been veneered in brick. Today "Little Zion" as it is sometimes called, is home to Christ Community Church, one of a growing number of non-denominational churches in the community.Civil Rights
activist Medgar Evers, martyred in Jackson in 1963, stands at the pulpit of Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church (above) at 228 North Martin Luther King Street. Evers served as the Mississippi Field Secretary for the NAACP. The Civil Rights Movement was closely linked to black churches. Since African Americans were denied access to most places of public accommodation prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, churches were the focus not only of their religious lives but also of their social and political lives.NAACP meetings moved randomly from church to church to confuse the Ku Klux Klan. Many of the churches in the St. Catherine Street neighborhood hosted meetings of the NAACP in the 1960s, and Shiloh Baptist Church was the site of mass meetings.The Reverend Jacob Henry Murray, pictured above right with his wife Donettia, oversaw construction of the first building of the Church of God in Christ on Perrault Street about 1921. He led the church until his death in 1969.A pillar of the church was esteemed Natchez educator Freddie Johnson, pictured above with his young son Freddie, Jr., in front of the original church building. Johnson marrieed Reverend Murray's daughter Leola.A World War II veteran, Freddie Johnson served the students of Adams County as a teacher and principal at Brumfield, Sadie V. Thompson, Northside and at Anchorage (later North Natchez) schools.James Murray, son of Jacob Henry Murray, was pastor when the congregation built the new church on Perrault Street.The ChurchesChina Grove Baptist Church105 St. Catherine StreetChurch of God in Christ10 Perrault StreetMt. Bethel Baptist Church32 Brenham AvenueMt. Sinai Baptist Church170 St. Catherine StreetShiloh Baptist Church11 Perrault StreetZion A.M.E. Church No. 27 Quitman StreetHoly Family Catholic Church30 St. Catherine StreetZion Chapel A.M.E. Church228 N. Martin Luther KingStreetPleasant Green Baptist Church201 East Franklin Street

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Show me all markers in:  Natchez, MS  |  Adams County  |  39120  |  Mississippi  |  United States of America

Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church
300 Block of Martin Luther King Street
Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church
Views of St. Catherine Street - Western End
Rhythm Night Club
Hospital Hill Neighborhood
20-30 St. Catherine Street and Eduation
Dr. John Banks House - 9 St. Catherine Street
Holy Family Catholic Church
Holy Family Church and School

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