New Bethel Baptist Church (Detroit, Michigan)
New Bethel Baptist Church is a Baptist church located at 8430 Linwood Street in Detroit, Michigan.[1] It opened in 1963 at that location. The original church, located on Hastings Street in Detroit's Black Bottom, was founded circa 1948 by clergyman and minister C. L. Franklin, father of music legend Aretha Franklin.
Franklin presided as minister of the organization until being shot in his Detroit home in 1979. Franklin's funeral was later held at the church in 1984 following his death from heart failure on July 27, 1984.
Franklin's famous daughter, Aretha, later recorded the album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, at the church, releasing the album on her Arista label in 1987, and re-released in 2003 with previously unreleased songs.[2]
Shortly following his death, Linwood Street, where Franklin built New Bethel, was renamed C. L. Franklin Blvd. in the minister's honor in 1985 by then-mayor Coleman A. Young.
