New Hope Missionary Baptist Church
Cooks Point, Burleson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Following the Civil War, African American communities established churches which became centerpieces of their culture, not only through spiritual guidance but also education, social activities and political empowerment and organization. In 1870, five years after Emancipation, a group of men and women met under a brush arbor near Jim Branch and started the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. The first church building was near Jim Branch with Reverend Albert Green of South Carolina as pastor. Membership grew and well-attended revivals necessitated a larger building. The church moved several times but settled on land donated by Walter Bains and built a sanctuary. In 1910, the congregation built a larger sanctuary. A choir stand and room, pastor's study and lighting were added in the late 1920s or 1930s. The congregation continued to make improvements to the church campus. In the 1960s, under the leadership of Reverend C.M. Roach, church improvements included brick facing and the installation of a baptismal pool. Prior to this, baptisms were held in a stock tank or the Brazos River. The congregation maintains a cemetery on the property and hosts an annual homecoming. The church also supports a youth group, choir and education within the community. After more than a century, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church remains the center of the Teals Prairie community through leadership and faith. (2019)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Just five years after Emancipation, in 1870, a group of freedmen and freedwomen gathered under a brush arbor near Jim Branch to found this congregation. Like Black churches across the postwar South, it became far more than a place of worship — a school, a meeting hall, and an engine of community organization. Growing membership carried it through a series of buildings and a century of improvements, always at the heart of the Teals Prairie community.
Why it matters
Independent Black churches founded after Emancipation were the bedrock institutions of African American freedom, nurturing education, leadership, and political voice.
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Related people
- · Albert Green
Related events
- · Emancipation
Themes & tags
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