Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Mt. Zion’s Gothic Revival sanctuary was built in 1884. A strong African American congregation since its creation, Mt. Zion experienced racial hardships from the Reconstruction period through the Civil Rights era. This church developed when a faction group of African American religious leaders split from the National Baptist Convention Inc. in 1872 to pursue missionary work as the core of their religious teaching. In the early twentieth century, Rev. A. F. Murray oversaw the establishment of this church’s mission fund, which served underprivileged civilians. Murray also sponsored political advertisements which encouraged African Americans to vote in local civil assemblies. During the civil rights era, several of the front and side windows were destroyed by racial violence. Mt. Zion persists as a pillar of Murfreesboro’s African American community.