MT. GILLARD BAPTIST CHURCH

Bob Mants:  So we wanted to be able to capitalize off the motion of the march, to be able to organize Lowndes County.

John Jackson:  Those men met in a little store there in White Hall, about seven of them, and decided to see if they could find a church.

Scott Smith: …the people in Lowndes County which were black to register to vote.

John Jackson: ...to begin to talk about voter education, people running for political position, and finally they got the Mt. Gillard church.

Scott Smith:  Mt Gillard Baptist Church was the first church where a mass meeting was held concerning voter registration.  That church became known as the mother church.

John Hulett:  Every Sunday night we would have a mass meeting somewhere, and we got people to come from different places in the county to these mass meetings.

Scott Smith:  They came from those areas onto Highway 80 to the church at Mt. Gillard for the various mass meetings.