Commerce, Hunt County
Serving Commerce since 1896, Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church has been an influential and vital institution since its organization. The congregation has its roots in the Cypress District Association, which formed in 1872 to organize congregations and build church building across northeast Texas. The Rev. Henry C. Riley, a noted missionary evangelist and member of the association, worked with preacher and Wolfe city teacher James I. Gilmore in organizing the new church. Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church immediately began to serve the spiritual and social needs of the Norris Community, where most of Commerce’s African-American population lived. Church members have reached out to the community by providing food, shelter, clothing and medicine. The congregation has also developed youth and college ministries, focusing particularly on students from Texas A&M University-Commerce. The church served as a beacon of hope in the turbulent social and political decades of the early to mid-20th century, when the Norris community gained a reputation as a violent place. During the 1960s, the church played a vital political role by organizing voting drives and hosting candidates for public offices. The congregation established links with the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and many influential members of the city were members of the church; a number of Norris community streets are named for these individuals. Today, the congregation continues to serve the spiritual, physical and social needs of the Norris community and the city of Commerce.