Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church in Val Verde County. Now, some institutions take root and fade. Others take root and hold.

This congregation, organized in the nineteen twenties, is the oldest surviving church with origins in Del Rio's African American community. That word, surviving, is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It means others came before, others tried, and this one endured.

Before the congregation had a place to call their own, members gathered in the A.M.E. Methodist Church, borrowing space, making do, building something in the meantime. And then came the moment that changes a community's story.

May fifteenth, nineteen twenty-two. The congregation secured their own property on Peirce Street. Their own ground.

Their own walls. Reverend James Fennell directed that important step, and he didn't stop there. He led this church from nineteen twenty-two all the way to nineteen fifty-eight.

Think about what those decades held for Black Texans in a town like Del Rio. The marker doesn't flinch, it says despite many hardships. That's a phrase that carries weight without spelling everything out, and you'd do well to sit with it.

Through all of it, the church grew. Grew in membership, grew in finances. In the nineteen forties, the sanctuary itself was remodeled and enlarged, because the congregation had outgrown what they'd built.

In nineteen seventy-four, they moved again, this time into the former Grace Lutheran Church, planting roots in yet another piece of Del Rio soil. And today, the members of Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church continue to enrich the community in worship and service. That's the whole story in one line, and it's also the whole point.

What the marker says

ORGANIZED IN THE 1920s, THIS CONGREGATION IS THE OLDEST SURVIVING WITH ORIGINS IN DEL RIO’S AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY. MEMBERS FIRST HELD SERVICES IN THE A.M.E. METHODIST CHURCH BEFORE SECURING THEIR OWN PROPERTY ON PEIRCE STREET ON MAY 15, 1922. REV. JAMES FENNELL DIRECTED THIS IMPORTANT STEP AND LED THE CHURCH FROM 1922 TO 1958. DESPITE MANY HARDSHIPS, THE CHURCH GREW IN MEMBERSHIP AND FINANCES. THE SANCTUARY WAS REMODELED AND ENLARGED IN THE 1940s. IN 1974, THE CONGREGATION MOVED AGAIN, THIS TIME TO THE FORMER GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH. MEMBERS CONTINUE TO ENRICH THE COMMUNITY IN WORSHIP AND SERVICE.