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First Missionary Baptist Church
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| Location: | 701 S. Gaines St., Little Rock, Arkansas |
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| Built: | 1882 |
| Architectural style: | Gothic Revival |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 83001164[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | September 29, 1983 |
First Missionary Baptist Church is a Gothic Revival style church located at 701 S. Gaines St., Little Rock, Arkansas. It was built in 1882, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.In the spring of 1845, a slave gathered enough courage to ask his master to allow him to form a church for the slaves to worship. This was a bold move, because slaves were thought of as chattel, and were bought and sold at will. The slave name was Rev. Wilson Brown.
Rev. Brown with the help of his master Major Fields, and a white Baptist minister, on the first Thursday night in April 1845, established the First Negro Baptist Church. Although they didn’t have a building in which they could meet for services. So all gathered on May 2, 1847, and assemble what is called a brush arbor. The location was Tenth and Spring Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. God blessed the congregation to grow and gave them another miracle, a new building on the corner of Seventh and Gaines Street. This is still the site of the church today.
Our church has also had World leaders speak from its pulpit. In April, 1963 four months to the day of the famous "I have a dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the 118th anniversary sermon. In 1990, only months before announcing his presidential aspirations, then Governor William (Bill) Clinton gave a rousing 145th church anniversary address.
First Missionary Baptist has been a springboard that catapulted these men into the world spotlight. God has truly blessed this church and continues to show His presence to us. Our heritage is great, but our mission is greater as we complete the work started by slaves. [1]
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