Gospel Temple M.B. Church: Promoter of education and political involvement

The congregation that continues to exist today as Gospel Temple Missionary Baptist Church had a beginning that was not so auspicious or unusual. 

The American Civil War ended in April 1965, securing African Americans freedom from chattel slavery. All over the South, Black people held in bondage were migrating, hoping to find a better life, a freer life. 

It was in such an atmosphere that Rev. Simon Donald left Baltimore, Maryland, traveled to Arkansas and then crossed the Mississippi River, landing in Rosedale, Mississippi. He carried within himself a strong desire to start a church for Black people, particularly those who had been held in slavery. 

Therefore, in mid-1865, Rev. Donald organized a Christian church congregation, Gospel Temple M.B. Church, making it the oldest church organized in Rosedale, if not Bolivar County. (The existing Black and white churches all trace their origins to later dates.) It appears that prior to the abolition of slavery, Blacks in the area simply held “secret” religious services in surrounding wooded locations.

The beginnings of the Gospel Temple congregation’s services were thus, not very different. Because the ex-slaves who made up the congregation had moved from various plantations in the area, there was no church building for them to occupy. As a result, for several years they met in a local blacksmith shop. This shop was near what is today Main Street and Frank Davis Street. It was a small facility. For revival services, which drew much larger crowds, the congregation met in a nearby grove, in the open air. Baptismal services were held across the levee in small lakes, the latest of which was called “the Blue Hole” and is today named in honor of Perry Martin, a well-known white whiskey distiller.

The first church building for the Gospel Temple congregation was erected in 1868. The site of the building was about a mile north of the town, along the Mississippi River, in an area that has since been over-run by the river. The Bolivar County Negro Cemetery was located there as well. The cemetery apparently accommodated not only members of the church, but Black people in general, who lived in the county.

During that period, 1860s and 1870s, Reconstruction leaders, including Blanche K. Bruce, C.M. Bowles, Joe Ousley, Rufe Richardson, and A.D. Grimes shared their wisdom and lent their prestige to Gospel Temple M.B. Church. 

C.M. Bowles, for whom one of the first streets is named, was one of the original founders of what eventually became Jackson State University. At that time, the college was being established to train Baptist preachers. It was Bowles who made the recommendation that the college also train school teachers. 

Years later, Rev. Purnell, a member of Gospel Temple M.B. Church, was one of the trustees of Jackson College who signed the document when the college was transferred from Baptist to state control in 1940. 

Joe Ousley was one of the founding members of the local Masonic Lodge. Many of those original members were men affiliated with Gospel Temple M.B. Church. 

James Jennings, the town’s official but untitled city engineer, was one of them. He had arrived in Rosedale and married a local young teacher in 1904. Like many others he remained in the Lodge and in Gospel Temple M.B. Church until his death in 1952. The Lodge, which Ousley began, is still in existence and bears his name. 

A.D. Grimes and Rufe Richardson both served in the local judiciary. During those days lawyers and judges often were not required to attend law schools, in part, because no law schools were around. Aspiring lawyers studied law and passed the bar exam in order to become lawyers. Of course, in a strange twist of things, for years after a law school was established in Mississippi, a graduate of that law school did not have to even take the bar exam. Others, however, had to pass the exam in addition to having graduated from law school. 

Black lawyers were gradually eliminated in the state because the law school did not admit Black applicants as students. That did not change until Cleve McDowell was admitted in 1963.

Rev. Simon Donald remained the church’s pastor, dying in 1880, after having served 15 years as pastor. During his tenure, many of the church members were quite active in Reconstruction politics and were generally leaders in the community because of their education and activism. 

Upon the demise of Rev. Donald, the congregation elected Rev. Joseph Henry Buford as pastor. Rev. Buford was a native of Bolivar County, hailing from the town of Beulah, which was the second largest town in West Bolivar County and had also recently served as the county seat. Rev. Buford had served other churches in the county, but being elected to Gospel Temple was quite a plum. He served as pastor for 43 years, from 1880 – 1923, the longest tenure of any minister before or since.

While he was Gospel Temple’s pastor, Rev. Buford also served in the state legislature. As a part of the Reconstruction legislature, he had the opportunity to be an advocate for public education and other issues of critical importance to the former slaves. Rev. Buford was the last Black person to serve in the Reconstruction legislature, as the local, white reactionary politicians took control following the withdrawal of federal troops from the state. 

In addition to politics, Rev. Buford was very active in religion at the state level. Given the fact that Gospel Temple was a relatively large and older congregation, Rev. Buford was able to get the Black Baptist state convention to meet in Rosedale at his church in 1922. This was a somewhat rare occasion since the convention moved around each year, usually to larger towns such as Jackson, Natchez, Vicksburg, and Greenville. 

Buford was also able to persuade the Bolivar County Baptist Convention to establish Rosedale Normal Industrial College on the grounds of Gospel Temple M.B. Church, which was also quite an accomplishment for that time. 

Rosedale Normal Industrial College was an institution designed to train teachers. In those days, upon a student completing the 8th grade, he or she could begin training as a teacher, and, in fact, could begin teaching. Most Black communities, and many white communities had no high schools and teachers were greatly needed. This was definitely the case in Rosedale. Black people had just emerged from slavery wherein the education of Black people was forbidden. Likewise, many white people, especially since they were rural, low-income workers, had not received an education either. 

Not long after the college was established in 1902, it was mysteriously burned to the ground one night in 1903. While it was in operation, the grade school children were taught in the church. The high school students were in the college building. After the burning of the college, it was re-built on 16th section land in the south end of town. It was eventually sold by the Baptist Convention to the county and reverted to being just an elementary school until 1948. 

At that time, Professor Charles Wade from Mound Bayou, who had been appointed principal, received authority from the board of trustees to add one grade per year, making it a full high school by 1952. 

Professor Wade and his wife Blanch Ingram Wade were proud members of Gospel Temple M.B. Church. She served as the church musician until her death on July 1, 1988. He served as principal and as a church trustee until his death in the Spring of 1955. He was a very popular educator; so much so until upon his death his body lay in state for three days, the first such occurrence in the history of the church or the town. 

There was also a proposal to name the new Black high school, built in 1959, Charles H. Wade High School. Another proposal was to name it H. H. Humes High School. By that time, Humes had become the pastor of Gospel Temple M.B. Church and was very popular in the area. Ultimately, the board of trustees decided in 1960 to name it West Bolivar Training School.

During Rev. Buford’s tenure as pastor, the church, in 1906, purchased land from E.H. Moore and in 1910 physically moved the church building to its Brown Street location. The men of the church were able to do this by pulling the structure on logs into the city limits and on to Brown Street, one block off Main Street. The church was a one-story frame building, and had a bell tower on its top. It was the duty of James Jennings, who lived across the street from the building, to ring the bell whenever there were services to be held. This he did until a new structure was built in 1948. It was at this Brown Street location that the State Baptist Convention was held in 1922. 

Rev. Buford died in 1923 while still serving as pastor. He was such an esteemed pastor that his portrait hung above the pulpit from the time of his death until it was removed for renovations on the building during the L.J. Jordan tenure in the early 1960s. 

The third man to serve as pastor was Rev. J.A. Scott. During his tenure, from 1923 until 1931, he emphasized youth ministries.

The fourth man to serve as pastor of the church was Rev. Horace Gardner. Rev. Gardner served from 1931 through late 1937. This meant that the Great Depression and the subsequent Great Migration were at their heights during his tenure. Despite that being the case, the church grew to more than 200 members, making it one of the largest Black churches in the county at the time. Emphasis was again placed on education, both in the congregation and the community.

In early 1938, Rev. A.D. Purnell was elected as pastor. Like Donald, Buford, Scott, and Gardner before him, Rev. Purnell was well educated, especially for a Black man whose ancestors were only a generation out of slavery. Rev. Purnell led the development of a comprehensive Sunday School. His wife, Gracie Purnell, in the meantime, served as a public school teacher at the Black school in Rosedale. Rev. Purnell served until 1947, at which time he moved north to continue his ministry among others who had left the South as a part of the Great Migration.

During his tenure, Rev. Purnell was active state-wide, as Rev. Buford had been. As an example of his stature and influence, Rev. Purnell was serving on the Board of Trustees for Jackson College at the time that its president Dr. B. Baldwin Dansby requested the college be taken over by the state as a public college rather than be closed as a result of bankruptcy in 1940. 

Jackson College had been started as Natchez Seminary, a Baptist college in Natchez, and had remained such until it moved to Jackson, becoming Jackson College. Because it was a Baptist college, its Board of Trustees had always contained influential Baptist ministers, which is what Purnell was.

When looking back from 1865 to 1947, one can see Gospel Temple M.B. Church’s strong emphasis on and support for Black education. Through its pastors and/or members, it had been involved in the early development of Natchez Seminary, the creation and housing of Rosedale Industrial Normal College, the rescue of Jackson College from closure, and the establishment of the Black elementary and high school.

These things happened, in no small part, because as one of the church’s early members Mrs. Blanche Whiteside Jennings boasted, “The church never had an illiterate pastor.” Not only were the pastors well-educated. As noted elsewhere, almost all the early teachers were members of Gospel Temple M.B. Church. Many other members were also fairly well-educated.

By the same token, many congregants were supportive of Black politics. Rev. J.H. Buford also was a state representative. He was very active in state and local politics. The same was true of Rev. Purnell and Rev. Gardner, among the pastors mentioned. Many members also were active and voting, even during the Jim Crow 1930s and 1940s. This appears to have been possible because most of the Black voters were teachers and could easily pass the literacy tests required for voter registration. Furthermore, there were people like Mrs. Blanch Wade, whose father had been a local official earlier in her life, and Mrs. Blanche Jennings, whose father had walked 25 miles one-way on election days to cast his ballots and had named his daughter after Senator Blanche K. Bruce. Thus, that political tradition had not been destroyed among those Black teachers, especially those who worshipped together at Gospel Temple M.B. Church. 

The bottom line is that after it was organized Gospel Temple M.B. Church became a real beacon when promoting Black education and politics.