Mt. Zion Mission Baptist Church Sign

Object Details

Mt. Zion Mission Baptist Church

Description

The Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church sprang up in rural areas across the South following the Civil War, providing a place of rest and community for freed slaves. Even if church services only occurred once or twice a month when a traveling minister visited, the house of worship provided not only a place to rekindle faith but as a school and meeting house for fraternal clubs. Homecomings came around harvest time, bringing visitors from across the country. Relatives and neighbors who had moved away came back to spend time with family, sharing stories of their lives in northern cities. The often-embellished picture of northern urban life painted at such reunions encouraged others to contemplate boarding trains north.

World War I brought a new era of industrial opportunity for African Americans, But as production demands grew, wartime recruitment took away traditionally white and immigrant factory workers. Northern labor recruiters, newspapers, and word-of-mouth spread news of higher wages and regular work being offered to African Americans willing to move. Desire for better treatment and better paying jobs brought hundreds of thousands of African Americans north.

Those left behind in the South found continued solace and fortitude in the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, leading the way in continuing the fight for basic civil rights for all. Freedom songs sung in marches and jails spread to whites traveling from northern colleges to join in the struggle, spreading lyrics and ideas back north that have now become familiar to those visiting the National Mall and public squares across the country participating in democratic demonstrations of a range of popular issues.

Credit Line

Gift of Frances W. Carter

ID Number

1986.0812.01

accession number

1986.0812

catalog number

1986.0812.01

Object Name

sign

Physical Description

wood (overall material)

paint (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 87 in x 30 3/4 in x 3 in; 220.98 cm x 78.105 cm x 7.62 cm

Place Made

United States: Mississippi, Jackson

See more items in

Home and Community Life: Religion

Cultures & Communities

Religion

Artifact Walls exhibit

National Museum of American History

Subject

Blacks

African American

Record ID

nmah_1194432

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-4f71-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa