Civil Rights Symbol Clayborn Temple Devastated by Fire

A fire that broke out in the early morning hours of April 28 2025 caused significant damage to Clayborn Temple, a historic Memphis church hailed as a crucial epicenter during the civil rights movement. The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. at the historic site on Hernando Street near Pontotac Avenue.

The Memphis Fire Department said the church sustained extensive damage, mostly inside the building. Although the fire was brought under control, it was called a “total loss”. No firefighters were injured.

The church has a long history. Long before it became a beacon of African-American history, it was originally owned by a white congregation. In the years that followed, Sunday services began to change. In 1949, the church sold the building to Bishop J.M. Clayborn’s African Methodist Episcopal Church and changed its name to Clayborn Temple.

Clayborn Temple became a natural home for the Civil Rights Movement when Memphis garbage collectors used it as a headquarters in 1968 to demand better working conditions. This demand came after two garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck on February 1, 1968. Cole, 36, and Walker, 30, were contract workers and were not entitled to compensation or life insurance. The workers wanted to unionize and seek higher wages and safer working conditions.

During the 1968 strike, garbage collectors marched daily from Clayborn Temple to City Hall. Martin Luther King, Jr. saw what was happening and brought his Poor People’s Campaign to Memphis to support the strikers’ cause. Clayborn Temple was an organizing point for King’s final campaign in 1968.

In 2017, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Clayborn Temple a “National Treasure.” The following year, in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of the garbage strike and Dr. King’s assassination, the city erected I Am a Man Plaza outside the temple. Clayborn Temple had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

At the time of the fire, Clayborn Temple was undergoing a $25 million restoration, scheduled for completion in 2026. The effort aimed to preserve the architectural and historic integrity of the Romanesque Revival church and included.  

It is likely that the investigations will take some time to identify the causes.