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Examine the brickwork in the majestic First Baptist Church on East Eighth Street in Chattanooga and you will see some obvious flaws. Some of the red bricks are chipped, while others are turned sideways.
To the members of the 150-year-old church, these flaws are a constant (and precious) reminder that the original sanctuary was not built by skilled brick masons, but by former slaves and soldiers after the Civil War. The bricks are part of the foundational history of the church, which for the last 150 years has been a cradle for black leadership in Chattanooga.
Only 13 men have served as pastor of the First Baptist Church on East Eighth Street, but the church is most famous for a job applicant who was not hired. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. applied for an open pastoral position at First Baptist in the 1950s, but he was passed over by church leaders, who opted for the late Rev. H.H. Battle instead.
Longtime church members say First Baptist leaders in the 1950s thought King, who was part of the emerging civil rights movement, would be in a better position to continue his work elsewhere, while Battle was more of a congregational shepherd.
The late Battle led the church for 30 years and eventually became a member of the Chattanooga school board. Later, he had his name attached to Battle Academy, a public school on Market Street near the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel property.