The congregation of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church first met on May 4, 1896. Its original members worshipped in St. Paul CME Church, and together the congregations bought a parcel of land in 1900 to build a new church. Construction continued piecemeal until the church was completed in 1943. Led by NAACP leader the Rev. Thomas A. Wright, high school and college students and church elders met at Mt. Carmel to organize for school integration and the appointment of black city officials from 1962 until Wright’s retirement in 2006. They were aided by University of Florida professors Ruth McQuown and Marshall Jones. In 1963, a Civil Rights march for desegregated public facilities and businesses began there. Students from the all-black Lincoln High School, including Joel Buchanan, Sandra Ezell, and LaVon Wright, met at Mt. Carmel to catch rides to Gainesville High School during that school’s integration from 1964 to 1970. Wright advocated for the role of community youth in moving equality forward, and his nonviolent protests in St. Augustine and Gainesville mobilized other black communities across the state to work toward desegregation in the second half of the 20th century.
