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Contributors: Roslyn Payne and Karen Serrett
  African American women have been a viable force in the development and growth of African American churches. The familiar scene of women together with their bible in the hands has been seen throughout the history of the African American community since slavery. The church became the outlet for the community to express their opinions, release their frustrations and plan for a better way of life. African American women have always felt the way to the better life is through the love of God and the fellowship of other worshippers. Two churches in Memphis history has been chosen to show that without the help of some African American women many churches would not have grown into the platform of growth for the African American community today.

 

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church


Ford Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was organized October 29,1887 under a bush harbor on the Frank Stevenson Plantation by a few Zion
Methodist members that had moved from Mississippi to Tennessee. There were no Zion Churches in this section of the country. The founders were J.W. Watkins, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Wright, Maggie Ballard, Jane Ford and their families.

Metropolitan Baptist Church (First Baptist BealelThe Metropolitan Baptist
Church


is an offspring of the Colored Baptist Church, whose origin was in the pre-Civil War days. The name was later changed to First Baptist Beale. In 1864 a congregation of ex-slaves organized praise meetings in the home of Rev. Scott Key on Beale and Turley Street. In 1865, First Baptist Beale became an independent church and the first African American church in the city of Memphis.
In the evening on the first Sunday in July 1896, the church was organized and was named Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church.


Mrs. Ella Searcy

5th pastors wife) organized the Deborah Circle in 1904, the group served as a Christian type social and recreational life for the church. The Deborah Circle was composed of both men and women who desire Christian
community. It prepares its disciples for the work of church missions, educatio and evangelism.

Mrs. Willa A. Townsend

(6th pastors wife) a musician in her own right, pianist,
composer and arranger added to her husband's ministry and formed the famed Choral Class.

Mrs. L.E. Brown[Sarah]

(7th pastors wife) was the first female trustee of metropolitan church. After her husband's death, she sold the home to the Y.W.C.A. with the stipulation that the branch would be named for her, The Sarah Brown Branch of the Y.W.C.A. Mrs. Mary Jane Owens, (8th pastors wife) organized the first Daily Vacation Bible School, the Cradle Roll Department and the Junior Choir. She instituted the Ode Day School of Missions in 1954, which became an annual feature of the Missionary Societies of many churches of the city and for many years a memorial program in her honor every fourth Sunday in July. In her honor, a memorial in lssele Uku, Nigeria Africa and it was named the Mrs. Mary Jane Owen Building of the Pilgrim Baptist Mission and was used for electrical and mechanical training for worship. In 1965, another milestone was reached in the dedication of the Recreation and Fellowship Hall, later named Mary Jane Owen Building. Rev. Reginald Porter and Rev. Davena Porter has made history in the church to serve as husband and wife ministers.
 



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