Exterior view of 2nd Baptist church (2412 Griffith Ave.). A sign with church information states "How to Get Along, [Reverend] Dr. [J. Raymond] Henderson." Second Baptist Church building was designed by architects Paul Revere Williams and William Foote Marsh and built in 1926 in the Lombardy Romanesque Revival style and has been listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (1978) and on the National Register of Historic Places (2009). The congregation's leaders acquired the property on which the current structure sits after hiring a real estate agent "who was very light in complexion." The leaders were reportedly concerned that white property owners may not sell to an African-American organization and hoped that the white owners would be more inclined to sell to a light-skinned agent who appeared to be "a member of their racial group. On May 13, 1885, Second Baptist Church, the first African American Baptist Church in Southern California, was organized in Los Angeles. Second Baptist Church was born in the minds and hearts of early African-American Baptists in Los Angeles who felt the need to have their own church where the free expression of worship in the black idiom could flow uninhibited. The church has been an important force in the Civil Rights Movement. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. [Wikipedia] Written on back of photo:2nd Baptist Church
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b18_f03_009a.tif ark:/21198/z16d7b5x
Subject
Romanesque revival (Architecture) African American churches Second Baptist Church (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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