Metropolitan Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.)

The Metropolitan Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Washington, D.C. The address of the church is 96 Harry S Truman Drive in Largo, Maryland. The church is temporarily worshipping at 1400 1st Street, NW in Washington, D.C.

Reverend Henry Bailey, with ten original members, founded the Fourth Baptist Church in 1864. According to John Wesley Cromwell, the Fourth Baptist Church of Washington D.C., later renamed the Metropolitan Baptist Church, was organized under the guidance of the First Colored Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. which was later renamed the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.[1] The Metropolitan Baptist Church was located across the street from Camp Barker, which housed a Quaker-run Civil War "contraband" barracks in the Shaw community of Washington, D.C. (then called "Hell's Bottom). It was here, within "Hell's Bottom, that Reverend Bailey and the founders of the Metropolitan Baptist Church began to minister to some 4,000 newly freed slaves.

Metropolitan holds the distinction of having had only five pastors in its history since 1864: Reverend Henry Bailey (1864–1870); Reverend Robert Johnson (1870–1903); Reverend Moses W. D. Norman, D.D., LL.D (1905–1926); Reverend Earnest Clarence Smith (1928–1977); and Reverend H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. (1977–present).

Metropolitan's current pastor, Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., was named one of America's greatest black preachers by Ebony magazine in 1993.[2]

Metropolitan also boasts a first-rate music and arts ministry, led by Dr. Steven M. Allen, Chief Musician, and staffed with such luminaries as Richard Smallwood, artist-in-residence.

References

  1. ↑ Cromwell, John W. (1922). "The First Negro Churches in the District of Columbia". The Journal of Negro History. Lancaster, PA: The New Era Printing Company. pp. 64–106. Retrieved November 30, 2016 – via Documenting the American South.
  2. ↑ "The 15 Greatest Black Preachers". Ebony. November 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2016 – via Black Preaching Network.

Further reading

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Coordinates: 38°53′31.1″N 76°50′13.9″W / 38.891972°N 76.837194°W / 38.891972; -76.837194


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