First Baptist Church
Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
First Baptist Church. Organized in 1833, issuing from an integrated worship, this church was established by John Ward and Ziah Black. Ward donated first lot. Members worshipped in private homes before occupying the first structure. Construction for present church began, 1904. Distinguished religious, educational, and civic leaders have held membership here.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
In 1833, at a time when Black and white worshippers still shared a single Frankfort congregation, John Ward and Ziah Black led the founding of a separate Baptist church for the city's African American community. Members met in private homes before raising their first building on land Ward donated, and the present sanctuary rose beginning in 1904. Over the generations the congregation became a training ground for religious, educational, and civic leaders.
Why it matters
It marks the rise of independent Black religious life in the antebellum Upper South — a church that gave a disenfranchised community its own institutions decades before emancipation.
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Related people
- · John Ward
- · Ziah Black
Themes & tags
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