| Chapter : | Introduction |
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Memphis has also had a long tradition of sacred music, as exemplified in the gospel compositions of Lucie Campbell, a teacher and choir director, and William Brewster, a minister and educator. Campbell wrote over 100 songs, including “Hold My Hand, Precious Lord” and “He Understands, He’ll Say Well Done”; Rev. Brewster, called one of the most influential gospel songwriters of the twentieth century, composed “Pay Day Someday” and “Move on Up a Little Higher.”
The Beale Street Church embodies these two traditions—sacred and secular—because it was not only a religious center but also a burial society, music school, social center, and post office. And it was in the church basement that journalist Ida B. Wells published her Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. Founded in 1866, Beale Street Baptist produced many other churches, including Tabernacle Baptist, First Baptist on St. Paul, and Metropolitan Baptist Church. There were historic churches of other denominations in the area, such as Collins Chapel Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, to the north of Beale, and Avery Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church on the corner of Hernando and Desoto Streets. Located in the middle of the Bible Belt, Memphis is also the headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, which was founded in 1897 by Charles H. Mason and which has become the country’s largest Pentecostal church, with more than seven million members. In 1945, Bishop Mason dedicated Mason’s Temple as COGIC’s world headquarters, and it was in its 7,500-seat auditorium that Dr. King spoke the night before his assassination.
Significantly, the “Mother Church” (Beale Street Baptist) was located next to Church’s Park and Auditorium and across the street from the Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Company. In 1900, Robert R. Church bought land to build a park, which contained a zoo, bandstand, and playground; and to construct a 2,000-seat auditorium, where operas, plays, musical shows, and political meetings were held. A banquet hall, soda fountain, Hall of Fame, and Julia Hooks’s School of Music were also located in the auditorium. In 1906, Church and three other businessmen—J. T. Settle, M. L. Clay, and T. H. Hayes—founded the Solvent Bank and Trust Company, located at 392 Beale Street, which anchored the business community.