pastor of Mt. Helm and served until 1893. Topp was credited with being a responsible steward of the church’s finances. He left Mt. Helm, which had more than 200 members, to organize Farish Street Baptist Church. From 1893–84, the pastors of Mt. Helm were either graduates or faculty members of what is now Jackson State University. Others from Mt. Helm who have made contributions to the African-American community include Lee E. Williams Sr., a member for whom the Jackson State athletics and assembly center is named; ministers who eventually founded Pearlie Grove, Cade Chapel and Mt. Calvary (Tougaloo) Baptist churches in Jackson; and the Rev. Charles Price Jones, pastor from 1895–1903, who later founded the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. denomination, which has national headquarters on Lamar Street in Jackson. The city of Jackson grew as did the college, but the racial climate in the early 1900s caused the college to relocate again. It finally purchased 150 acres on Lynch Street in the Gowdy com-
munity, named for Cotton Oil Mill president W.B. Gowdy. The area consisted of smaller communities referred to as Washington Addition, Washington Annex and College Addition. The area is now called Washington Addition. In appreciation of the new community, Dr. Luther Barrett, the college’s president, wanted to give rural blacks an opportunity to move closer to the city. He believed parents who lived close to the school would be more open to sending their children to Jackson College.
JAY JOHNSON
THE COLLEGE HILL CONNECTION Another significant contribution the college made to its new community was a 1907 land-gift to a group of blacks who were worshipping under an oak tree on Florence Street. Barrett felt the community needed a proper site to worship, and students preparing to be teachers and ministers could benefit from handson training that only a church could provide. The congregation, proud of its community, named the church College Hill. That source of community pride and value is evident today. “Our church made the decision years ago to remain in the Washington Addition area,” says the Rev. Hosea Hines, College Hill’s pastor. “We want to maintain our commitment in bettering the area and Jackson State University.” Before coming to College Hill, Hines admits he was unaware of Jackson College’s effort to create a training ground for its teachers and preachers. “When I accepted the call to pastor College Hill, I immediately began to do my homework. I then found out B. Baldwin Dansby (fourth Jackson College president) was a deacon of the church, and Dean of Women Bobbie Nell Oatis and former Athletics Director Paul Covington were significant individuals at Jackson State and members of the church,” Hines says. “So for years, both the college and the church have thrived off each other.” Malena Dow, a member of College Hill since 1954, is a testament to how Barrett’s vision to create a church “laboratory” was beneficial to blacks. Dow, who once lived at 1150 Dalton St., exactly where the Dollye M.E. Robinson Liberal Arts Building now stands, entered Jackson College as a freshman English major in the fall of 1952. She started attending College Hill mainly because the congregation started and ended church “on time.” “We (students) had to get back to campus at a certain time to get our lunch baskets,” Dow recalls. After graduating, she returned to teach in the Department of Speech and Dramatic Arts until retiring in 1989. “I never thought about it until now,” Dow says when asked how it felt to be a direct beneficiary of the college and church’s original purpose. “It’s definitely a special blessing. Blessings like that don’t just happen accidentally; it’s providential. I’m older now so it means Malena Dow, an alumna and former professor at Jackson State University, has been so much more to me. I guess if I had to use one word, I a member of College Hill Baptist Church since 1954. She is pictured with the Rev. would say, ‘fulfilled.’” Hosea Hines, pastor.
Sources: College Hill Baptist Church; Jackson State University Library Archives; Dr. Lee E. Williams Sr., Mt. Helm: The Parade of Pastors; Mississippi Department of Archives