Zion Baptist Church is located at 2215 Grant Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. The congregation is among the oldest in Nebraska, and has been instrumental for responding to much of the racial tension in Omaha.

History

Founded in 1884, the congregation became the city's largest African American church by the first decade of the 20th century. An incorporation of the church was announced in 1888, the incorporaters were Dr. W. H. C. Stephenson, W. Whitefield, S. H. Baxter, G. W. Kellog, R. Plenix, G. Young, A. Chapman, and D. A. Thomas. The present building was designed by Clarence W. Wigington and built in the wake of the

Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913 The tornado outbreak sequence of March 1913 was a devastating series of tornado outbreaks that affected the northern Great Plains, the Southern United States, and sections of the upper Midwest over a two-day-long period between March 21–23, ...

. Zion was integral to the community mobilization that happened previous to and following the

Omaha Race Riot of 1919 The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the lynching of Will Brown, a black civilian; the death of two white rioters; the injuries of many Omaha Police Department officers and civ ...

. The local chapter of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

met there repeatedly to call on local civic leaders to respond appropriately to the violence vetted towards the community, but to no avail.Seligmann, H.J. (1920) ''The Negro Faces America.'' Harper & Brothers. p 156.

References

External links

Zion Baptist Church
website.
"A history of Zion Baptist Church"
by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska History of North Omaha, Nebraska Baptist churches in Nebraska Churches in Omaha, Nebraska African-American history in Omaha, Nebraska Religious organizations established in 1884 Clarence W. Wigington church buildings {{Nebraska-church-stub

History

See also

References

External links