The Union Baptist Church is Cincinnati's oldest

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

church. The church was founded on July 14, 1831. They had their first meeting in a building on Third Street, between Elm and Plum Streets, downtown. The members built a church on Central Avenue and called Rev. David Leroy Nickens of

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as its first pastor. By the end of its first decade, the church had grown sufficiently to require a new building and by 1839, moved to a new location on Baker Street, where they remained for twenty-five years. Nickens was succeeded by Rev. Charles Satchell in 1838, who in turn was succeeded by William P. Newman in 1848. When Newman fled to Canada because of the passage of the

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern interests in slavery and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most co ...

, he was succeeded by Rev. Henry Adams, who served until 1855; Rev. H. L. Simpson, who served until 1858; and Rev. H. H. White who served three years. William Newman returned in 1864, serving until his death in the 1866 cholera epidemic. Simpson returned to fill the vacancy, serving until 1869, when he was succeeded by Rev. James H. Magee. In 1864, Church members founded the Union Baptist Cemetery, in the Price Hill neighborhood. It is the oldest Baptist

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cemetery in Cincinnati. In the 1960s, urban renewal forced the church to move from its longtime home at Richmond and Mound Streets. The Church moved to Seventh & Central Avenues in 1971, under the leadership of Rev. Wilber Page, longtime pastor. The church continues its work in the Cincinnati community.

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* * * * * Churches in Cincinnati Baptist churches in Ohio Religious organizations established in 1831 19th-century Baptist churches in the United States African-American history in Cincinnati 1831 establishments in Ohio {{Ohio-church-stub