Our History

In 1873, it was thought that the time had come to combine The Lincoln Association (1867), Texas Louisiana Association (1869), The Cypress Association (1873), The Unity Association (1873), The Zion Association (1871) The Trinity Valley Association and Central Association, having being pioneers that organized Black Baptist. Therefore Black Baptists formed the Convention on December 12, 1873 at the Friendship Baptist Church of Navasota under the name of Texas Freedmen’s Missionary Baptist Association. The tragedies of the early years of their freedom convinced them that a people just up from slavery with nothing, needed direction. They needed guidance in fulfilling the deepest human needs – food, clothing, shelter, family, education and a sense of worth and identity. In the face of growing hostilities toward their freedom, they needed faith and hope and love in order to possess their spirits and to face the future confident that they would anchor by and by. The name was changed in the early 1880’s to Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention of Texas. The name was corrected and changed in accordance to the Baptist Missionary and Education Convention of Texas Constitution in 2010 under the leadership of Dr. Stephen C. Nash, Sr., President. As was typical of Baptist state organizations, the Baptist Missionary And Education Convention promoted missionary and educational activity in the state. Because of the poverty of black Texans. The Baptist Missionary And Education depended for many years on assistance from the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York to support its missionaries and conduct institutes to train its preachers. The American Baptist Home Mission Society owned and operated Bishop College in Marshall (later Dallas), which it established to train black ministers. The Baptist Missionary And Education Convention supported schools of its own, Hearne Academy, Houston College, and Guadalupe College.

By 1890 the convention represented more than 110,000 black Baptists. In the 1890s a plan put forth by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to consolidate black Baptist schools divided the Baptist Missionary And Education Convention. The plan called for making Bishop College the flagship school for educating black Baptists in Texas and subordinating Hearne Academy and Guadalupe College to it. The proposal drew strong objections from several ministers, who argued that the plan would lead to the demise of Guadalupe College. They resented the idea that a black-administered college was being sacrificed to the white-operated American Baptist Home Mission Society School.

The Baptist Missionary And Education Convention accepted the plan in 1892, and in 1893 the dissident ministers organized the General Baptist Convention. Later disputes further divided the Baptist Missionary And Education Convention. In 1929 dissatisfaction over financial affairs led to the founding of the Texas Baptist Convention. In 1946 the Trinity Baptist State Convention was organized, and in 1981 the Central Baptist Convention was established.