Grayson Bible Baptist Church
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On the evening of Monday, June 22, 1931, John R. Rice began a revival service on the Grayson County Courthouse square. The revival took place where the 1870s courthouse had stood. That building was burned to the ground in May 1930 during mob violence that caused the death of an African American man who had been accused of a crime. Businesses and homes of African American residents were also destroyed. The revival's location -- in the center of Sherman -- was a perfect one. Large crowds of people attended, and the revival lasted for over a month. When Rice asked attendees to present themselves to organize a new church, forty people answered the call, and on July 16, 1931, the Fundamentalist Baptist Church was organized. On the evening of July 28, a tank was constructed on the courthouse lawn and a Baptismal service was conducted. The congregation soon built a tabernacle at the corner of South Montgomery and East Cherry, and the first service in the building was held on Sunday, September 12, 1931. The church has changed locations several times through the years, and the current structure was constructed in 2004 on East Highway 82. During the late 1940s the church's name changed to Central Baptist Church, and again changed in 1973 to Grayson Bible Baptist Church. The church has actively supported mission work and outreach. During the 1950s a church bus was sent to nearby Perrin Air Force Base to bring soldiers to church services. Grayson Christian Academy was established in 1973 as an outreach ministry of the church. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In June 1931, evangelist John R. Rice launched a month-long revival on the Grayson County courthouse square in Sherman—the very spot where the 1870s courthouse had burned a year earlier during mob violence that killed an African American man and destroyed Black homes and businesses. Huge crowds gathered, forty people answered the call to organize a new congregation, and the Fundamentalist Baptist Church was born in July 1931, baptizing converts in a tank built on the courthouse lawn. Renamed over the decades, it became Grayson Bible Baptist Church and founded Grayson Christian Academy in 1973.
Why it matters
The church's origin story is inseparable from the 1930 Sherman riot, one of Texas's notorious episodes of racial violence, marking a site where community was rebuilt on ground scarred by that tragedy.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Sherman in the early 1930s was a Texas county seat still living in the shadow of a catastrophe. In May 1930, mob violence tore through the town: an African American man accused of a crime was killed, the 1870s Grayson County courthouse was burned to the ground, and Black homes and businesses were destroyed. That is the raw ground on which this church's story begins.
The events unfolded in the Progressive and Modern Era, but in the American South those years were also the era of Jim Crow and of appalling racial violence. The Sherman riot of 1930 was one of the notorious episodes of that violence in Texas, and its scars — physical and social — were fresh when the revival that founded this congregation began just over a year later.
The setting matters: the courthouse square, the symbolic center of a Texas town. To hold a gathering on the very spot where the old courthouse had stood and burned was to place a new beginning on ground marked by destruction — a choice loaded with meaning in a community trying to move forward from what had happened there.
People & events
On the evening of Monday, June 22, 1931, the evangelist John R. Rice opened a revival on the Grayson County courthouse square — right where the 1870s courthouse had stood before the previous year's violence. The location, dead center in Sherman, drew large crowds, and the revival stretched on for more than a month.
When Rice asked those attending to come forward and organize a new church, forty people answered. On July 16, 1931, they formed the Fundamentalist Baptist Church. Twelve days later, on the evening of July 28, a baptismal tank was built right there on the courthouse lawn and a baptism was held in the open, at the heart of town. By September 12, 1931, the young congregation held its first service in a tabernacle it had built at the corner of South Montgomery and East Cherry.
The church's life since then is a story of growth and reinvention. It changed locations more than once, and its name changed with the times — to Central Baptist Church in the late 1940s, then to Grayson Bible Baptist Church in 1973; the current building went up in 2004 on East Highway 82. Its outreach has been a constant thread: in the 1950s a church bus ran to nearby Perrin Air Force Base to bring soldiers to services, and in 1973 the congregation founded Grayson Christian Academy as a ministry.
Its place in the American story
This is a site where local faith history and the national story of American racial violence are inseparable. The 1930 Sherman riot stands among the disgraceful episodes of mob violence that scarred the United States in the early twentieth century — a courthouse burned, a life taken, a Black community's property destroyed. To understand this church, you have to reckon with that ground first.
What rose on that ground afterward speaks to the enduring American pattern of building institutions in the wake of tragedy. A congregation organized, baptized its members in public on the courthouse lawn, and put up a place of worship within months. Whatever one makes of the era, the human impulse to gather and start something new on a site of loss is a recurring thread in the nation's history.
The later chapters connect to broader currents too. A church bus carrying servicemen from an Air Force base in the 1950s reflects the deep ties between American communities and the military during the Cold War. The founding of a church-run academy in 1973 mirrors a nationwide movement of congregations launching their own schools in that decade. In a single congregation's history you can trace several distinctly American arcs.
If you visit
Begin not at the current church on East Highway 82 but with the idea of the courthouse square in Sherman, because that square is where everything here started — first in tragedy in 1930, then in the open-air revival and lawn baptism of 1931. Standing where a town's civic heart sits, you can feel why both the violence and the response landed with such force at that spot.
The present building dates only to 2004, so don't expect a nineteenth-century relic. What you're really visiting is a story that has moved across Sherman over more than ninety years — from a tabernacle at South Montgomery and East Cherry to its home today. Reading the marker with the town around you turns ordinary streets into a map of that journey.
This is a stop that rewards reflection more than sightseeing. It fits well into a thoughtful tour of Grayson County history, one that doesn't look away from the hard chapters. Give yourself time to sit with the full arc — what was destroyed here, and what people chose to build afterward — before you drive on.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John R. Rice
Related events
- · 1930 Sherman riot
Themes & tags
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