Early African-American Churches in Columbus

​By Doreen Uhas Sauer

The cultural history of Columbus has religion at its roots. Churches represented religious beliefs, community, charity, education, and medical help. Many of the African-American churches in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville neighborhood are well over 100 years old. The churches may have expanded to new buildings, but the congregations are both ancient and evolving—with some new churches growing out of other ones.

In 1814, on a Town Street lot donated by the new City of Columbus, the first Methodist Church was built for the sum of $157 and 53 ½ cents. The Town Street Methodist Episcopal Church was formed with an integrated congregation of charter members. In 1823, one of the charter members, Moses Freeman, separated from the church to form an independent church, but one founded in Methodism. Meeting at first in homes or rented rooms, they established a building of their own  (a log cabin) on Lazelle Street (then called Straight Alley) just north of Spring Street.  Within ten years, the congregation had purchased a site at 71 East Long and built a brick church—and grew to be a much larger church, St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church.  In 1905, St. Paul’s relocated to 639 East Long (where it is today) and a new church was built for the staggering sum of $40,000. St. Paul’s also established the first African-American high school in Columbus.

The beginnings of the historic Second Baptist Church began with the organization of First Baptist Church on May 16, 1824 and an integrated congregation of 11 members, 3 of whom were African American—Patsy Booker, George Butcher, and Lydia Jones. In 1834, the African-American members of the church were given “their liberty” to form a branch of First Baptist, hold meetings, and do their own business and pay their own expenses. In 1836, Reverend Ezekiel Fields was chosen as the first pastor. They worshiped in several buildings in downtown Columbus until 1907 when they built the church they continue to occupy today at 186 North Seventeenth Street.

One of the most well-known pastors of Second Baptist was James Poindexter (1858-1898), a tireless and outspoken leader in the anti-slavery movement. He and forty members of Second Baptist left the church during a split over abolitionism, forming the Anti-Slavery Baptist Church. The charter members of the church were Rev. Poindexter, John T. Ward, John Booker, William B. Ferguson, Jeremiah Freeland, James Hawkins. David Jenkins, and William Washington who were known for their active work on the Underground Railroad in Columbus. In 1858 the Anti-Slavery Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church reunited. Second Baptist Church is also known as the “Mother Church,” having in some way helped to form other churches, including Good Shepherd Baptist, Oakley Baptist, Urban Baptist in Urbancrest, Shiloh Baptist, Union Grove, Bethany Baptist, and Pilgrim Baptist.