Mount Zion United Methodist Church
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the years following Emancipation, eighteen former slaves worshipped together on the banks of the Brazos River under an old oak tree. Records show that these men and women, both Baptists and Methodists, were also allowed to worship in the balcony of Waco's First Baptist Church sanctuary. In May 1866, they requested letters of dismissal from Dr. Rufus Burleson, then president of Baylor University. Following their dismissals, these men and women chartered new churches. The Baptists and Methodists shared rented space at Jefferson and Sixth streets until the Freedman's Aid Society selected the location for Howard Institute, a school for local African Americans. The Baptist and Methodist congregations dismantled their building and shared the lumber. The Methodist church, known as Mount Zion, moved to North Sixth and Marlbrough, where it dedicated the first sanctuary in April 1873. Shortly after the church's founding in the 1860s, Mount Zion became part of a large group of Black Methodist churches under the Mississippi Mission Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation grew, and out of the growth three other Methodist Episcopal congregations were organized. In 1972, due to urban renewal, members worshipped in the Friendship Center until relocating the church to this site in October 1973. Over the years, Mount Zion's members have maintained a strong link to Texas' Methodist educational institutions. Today, Mount Zion's members are active in local educational training, as well as many other programs and services. The church continues to be a spiritual home for many in the Waco area. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the years just after Emancipation, eighteen formerly enslaved men and women gathered to worship under an oak tree on the banks of the Brazos, having once been confined to the balcony of a white congregation's sanctuary. In 1866 they secured their release from that arrangement and chartered churches of their own; the Methodists among them dedicated Mount Zion's first sanctuary in 1873. The congregation grew quickly, spinning off other Black Methodist churches and tying itself closely to the education of local African Americans.
Why it matters
Mount Zion embodies one of the first freedoms newly emancipated Americans claimed—an independent church of their own—and its enduring link to Black education shows how faith and schooling advanced together in the postwar South.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rufus Burleson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
G. W. Carver High School
Waco, TX
Opened in 1956, G. W. Carver High School educated some 500 African American children of the La Vega district and honored the famed scientist and educator George Washington Carver. Its students excelled, and in 1967 its award-winning marching band traveled to Montreal's Expo '67 and carried home the grand prize as champion American high school band. The school closed in 1970 when federal courts ordered integration, then lived on as a community center, special-education site, and finally a neighborhood school.
A. J. Moore High School
Waco, TX
In 1875 Professor A. J. Moore of Paul Quinn College, troubled by the lack of quality schooling for Waco's Black children, began teaching small groups in his home. The effort grew into Waco's first school for Black youth, moving from a repurposed frame hospital building into a brick schoolhouse in 1923 and taking Moore's name. Over nearly a century it graduated more than 4,000 students before closing in 1971, sending alumni into medicine, law, education, and countless other fields.
Paul Quinn College
Waco, TX
Founded April 4, 1872, in Austin by the African Methodist Episcopal Church as an institute for Black youth, this school taught newly freed people trades like blacksmithing, carpentry, and tanning during Reconstruction. Moved to Waco in 1881 and renamed for Bishop William Paul Quinn, its first building rose from a 'ten cents a brick' campaign that channeled the hopes of a desperately poor community. It grew into Texas's oldest liberal arts college for African Americans, sustained across generations by its motto, 'A past to cherish, a future to fulfill.'
New Hope Baptist Church
Waco, TX
In the years before emancipation, some of Waco's Black residents worshiped at the city's first Baptist church. In 1866 that church's leaders — including Baylor University president Rufus Burleson — helped organize a separate congregation of eighteen members, named New Hope Baptist Church by its first pastor, the Rev. Stephen Cobb. In its early years the young congregation met in an old foundry, at the Howard Institute, and in a shared Methodist building before settling at its present site in 1923.