According to the Tulsa Preservation Commission, "... Mount Zion Baptist Church remains a testimony to the perseverance and tenacity of its congregants and the black community in Greenwood.

In 1909, a religious study group led by Reverend Sandy Lyons organized the Second Baptist Church in a school in the 300 block of North Hartford in Tulsa.

About this time, the landlord of their rented building told the congregation that it was no longer available to them and gave them three days to move.

The new Mount Zion Baptist Church was deliberately burned by a mob of white men, who had heard a rumor that blacks were using the building to store rifles that had been brought there in caskets.

However, it was true that some armed blacks used the structure as a vantage point for firing on rioters that were attacking nearby houses.

The whites could not dislodge the blacks until some local guardsmen brought up a truck with a machine gun and opened fire.

Furthermore, the insurance policy contained an escape clause that eliminated coverage for damages due to riot or rebellion.

Hamilton, and those who agreed with him, believed this was not a legal obligation because it was a loan in good faith and unsecured by any physical assets.