SOULS MADE OF GOLD: From Bondage to Builder. From Dignity in Death: Rev. Henry Baker & James Nathan Baker, Sr.

 

SOULS MADE OF GOLD: From Bondage to Builder. From Dignity in Death: Rev. Henry Baker & James Nathan Baker, Sr.

Friends of New Trinity Cemetery Seek Historic Texas Freedmen’s Cemetery Designation.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS —

The church and the cemetery have always been the twin pillars of the Black community.

One anchors the soul.

The other anchors the memory.

And when a family has given more than a century of faithful service to both — you honor them with something sacred.

As America approaches her 250th Semiquincentennial, Friends of New Trinity Cemetery lifts up a legacy rooted in faith, freedom, enterprise, and enduring stewardship of the land in Tarrant County.

At the center of this sacred moment stand two towering pillars of Black Fort Worth history:

• Henry Baker — born enslaved, builder of churches, founder of Baker Chapel AME Church

• James Nathan Baker Sr. — entrepreneur, funeral director, founder of Baker Funeral Home

Father and son.

One preached freedom.

The other preserved dignity in death.

Together, they shaped the spiritual and civic landscape of Tarrant County — not merely as leaders, but as stewards of sacred ground.

Now, in their honor — and in recognition of nearly 110 years of faithful service by the Baker Funeral Home family — Friends of New Trinity Cemetery will formally seek designation through the Texas Historical Commission under the Historic Texas Freedmen’s Cemetery Program established by Senate Bill 217, effective September 1, 2025.

This is not simply paperwork.

It is prophecy fulfilled.

It is remembrance made visible.

Rev. Henry Baker

From Bondage to Builder

Born into slavery in 1855 in West Virginia, Henry Baker came of age during Emancipation in Texas. Separated from his brother as a child and later reunited, he rose from the shadows of bondage to become a shepherd of souls and an architect of institutions.

In 1908, alongside eight faithful believers, he organized “Baker Mission” on family property at 301 East Rosedale. That mission became Baker Chapel AME Church — a sanctuary of hope in segregated Fort Worth.

Rev. Baker did more than preach.

He planted churches.

He built congregations.

He laid foundations.

From Grand Prairie to Irving to Big Spring, he established houses of worship where newly freed families could gather, grieve, rejoice, and rebuild their lives in freedom.

He died in 1944 at age 89, having witnessed the growth of the institutions he birthed — and the rise of his son as a guardian of dignity for the living and the departed.

His life embodies the sacred essence of the Historic Texas Freedmen’s Cemetery designation:

A man once counted as property

who became a builder of permanence.

James Nathan Baker, Sr.

Dignity in Death. Excellence in Enterprise.

In the summer of 1917, while working as a Pullman Porter for the Santa Fe Railroad, James Nathan Baker, Sr. chose courage over comfort. Seeing that African Americans in Cleburne had no funeral home to serve them, he founded Baker Funeral Home — answering injustice with initiative.

By 1926, he expanded into Fort Worth, operating from his father’s property on East Rosedale — where faith and enterprise stood side by side.

During segregation, when Black families were denied equitable burial services, Baker created access to dignity.

He later purchased People’s Burial Park in the 1940s, ensuring sacred ground would remain available for African-American families in Tarrant County. Through burial associations, funeral services, and land stewardship, he wove compassion with commerce and service with sustainability.

In 2004, Baker Funeral Home was recognized as a Texas Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register — a rare and profound distinction honoring not only a structure, but a lineage of service.

For more than a century, the Baker family has walked grieving families from sorrow to sacred rest — stewarding memory with reverence, excellence, and faith.

Why New Trinity? Why Now?

The Historic Texas Freedmen’s Cemetery Designation Program requires only one grave of a formerly enslaved person to qualify.

New Trinity Cemetery meets that sacred threshold.

But eligibility is only the beginning.

Across Texas, nearly 500 Freedom Colonies were founded by formerly enslaved families — communities anchored by church, school, and cemetery. These burial grounds are not vacant land.

They are testimony in soil.

They are sermons in stone.

They are history beneath our feet.

Under the program administered by the Texas Historical Commission:

• Freedmen burial grounds receive official state recognition

• Sacred sites are documented and preserved

• A commemorative medallion marks the land

• Public awareness safeguards history from erasure

But the moral value of recognition cannot be measured.

A Sacred Assignment During America’s 250th

As the nation marks 250 years, we are called not only to celebration — but to reflection.

Pastor Kyev P. Tatum of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, alongside Buffalo Soldiers across Texas, calls upon churches, descendants, veterans, and historians to ensure that no Freedmen cemetery remains unrecognized.

“Let your light so shine before men…” — Matthew 5:16

The Bakers let their light shine:

• Rev. Henry Baker built sanctuaries when freedom was fragile.

• James Nathan Baker built institutions when dignity was denied.

Now our generation builds memory.

Souls Made of Gold

New Trinity Cemetery is not merely burial ground.

It is covenant ground.

It carries the echo of sermons, the hush of funeral hymns, the resolve of Pullman porters, the prayers of mothers, and the courage of formerly enslaved Texans who dared to build permanence on Texas soil.

To honor the Bakers is to honor every unnamed soul who believed freedom was worth building — and worth preserving.

Friends of New Trinity Cemetery will therefore:

1. Submit documentation to the Texas Historical Commission for Historic Texas Freedmen’s Cemetery designation.

2. Publicly honor the Baker Funeral Home family for over a century of faithful stewardship.

3. Launch a statewide call to identify and protect other Freedmen cemeteries across Texas.

Because when a nation turns 250,

it must reckon with its roots.

And in the sacred soil of Tarrant County

rest Souls Made of Gold —

forged in bondage, refined in faith,

remembered with honor,

and now marked forever in history.

The work begins now.

About the Publisher

Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. is the senior pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church of Fort Worth and a community preservationist committed to faith-based restoration, historic remembrance, and economic empowerment. A graduate of the University of North Texas School of Community Service, he blends ministry, civil rights advocacy, and historical stewardship to preserve sacred Black spaces across Tarrant County.

As curator of the Friends of New Trinity Cemetery initiative and a leader among Christian Buffalo Soldiers, Pastor Tatum works to ensure that the stories of formerly enslaved Texans, Black veterans, and faith pioneers are not lost to neglect — but lifted into legacy.

His mission is simple yet sacred:

To preserve the soil, protect the story, and proclaim the dignity of those who came before us.

Contact:

817-966-7625

kptatum1@gmail.com

www.newmountrose.com