Carswell Grove Baptist Church and Cemetery, Church building and cemetery near Perkins, Jenkins County, United States

Carswell Grove Baptist Church and Cemetery is a historic Black church site on Big Buckhead Church Road near Perkins, about seven miles north of Millen in Jenkins County, Georgia. The 1919 wood-frame church, with Gothic Revival windows and a front gable flanked by two square towers, was destroyed by arson in 2014. The congregation now meets in a modern adjacent building erected in 2008, and the cemetery, founded around 1870, lies along the rear and sides with modest headstones.

After the Civil War, white judge Porter W. Carswell gave the Black congregation two acres near Big Buckhead Baptist Church, where they had worshipped in segregated pews. They built their own church around 1870 and named it in his honor. The original building was the first of seven Black churches burned in the Jenkins County riot of 1919; a wood-frame replacement with Gothic Revival windows and two square towers was erected that same year and stood until arson destroyed it in 2014.

The church was founded as a space where Black worshippers could gather on their own terms after being segregated in white churches before the war. The cemetery holds graves of those who built and sustained this community for generations.

The 1919 church was destroyed by arson in 2014 and stood boarded up and deteriorated beforehand; the congregation now meets in a modest modern building erected in 2008 beside it. The cemetery, founded around 1870, runs along the rear and sides of the church and holds modest headstones. The site lies on Big Buckhead Church Road near Perkins, about 7 miles north of Millen; Big Buckhead Baptist Church is a few hundred yards southwest.

The original church was the first of seven Black churches burned in the Jenkins County riot of 1919. The wood-frame replacement that followed, with Gothic Revival windows and two square towers flanking its front gable, was itself destroyed by arson in 2014; the congregation now meets in a modern building erected in 2008.