A house of faith. That is what Grant Avenue Baptist Church is. It is located at 2215 Grant Ave in Redondo Beach California.
Grant Avenue Baptist Church can be reached at 310-591-2968. You can check Grant Avenue Baptist Church out on Facebook. The Facebook page is http://facebook.com/grant-avenue-baptist-church-427778733957336.
Let me tell you about another Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Second Baptist Church Building was built in 1926. Paul R. Williams designed it. The Los Angeles Times announced excavation work in February 1925. The paper did not mention Paul R. Williams the architect. Williams became one of the city’s premiere builders. The Times mentioned the building would be conveniently located for the Negro population of Los Angeles.
Second Baptist Church was founded in 1885. Rev. S.C. Pierce was the pastor. It was the first black Baptist church in Southern California. The first building was on Maple Avenue. It was between 7th and 8th Streets. Dr. Thomas Lee Griffith Sr. became pastor in 1921. He was pastor until 1940. The congregation saw a rapid increase in membership. Church officials decided to build a new home. It was a block west of South Central Avenue. Griffith hired African-American businesses for the construction. He hired Williams. He saw to it that excavators carpenters and brick and cement masons were black owned companies.
The church spent $125000 on the brick Romanesque Revival structure. That included Sunday school quarters. The Sunday school was large enough for 1500 students. The main auditorium seats 2200 today.
The Second Baptist Church Building was dedicated in January 1926. Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. presented the dedication sermon. He was pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King preached at Second Baptist Church on St Patrick’s Day 1968. That was three weeks before his assassination. The subject of his sermon was The Meaning of Hope.
The congregation’s 83-year-old landmark was in the final stages of a $5 million restoration and renovation project. Until it was finished the group held Sunday services in Inglewood. Since 1987 Rev. William S. Epps has been the congregation’s pastor.
These days Second Baptist rents out to other diverse congregations. The Second Baptist Church is committed to staying and rehabilitating the historic building. The neighborhood has changed dramatically. It is predominately Latino today. Most of its parishioners commute for worship.
In May 1885 Second Baptist Church was organized. It was the first African-American Baptist Church in Southern California. Second Baptist Church was born in the minds and hearts of early African-American Baptists. They wanted their own church. They wanted free expression of worship in the black idiom. Only the name of the first pastor is remembered Reverend S. C. Pierce. Rev. Pierce ministered there for two years.
The Second Baptist Church building was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1978. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The Central Avenue Corridor became the cultural and business hub of the African-American community in Los Angeles. This was from the 1920s to the 1950s. The Second Baptist Church building was located one block west of Central Avenue.
Among the historic institutions along the Central Avenue Corridor the Second Baptist Church played a vital role in the Civil Rights Movement. With a seating capacity of over 2000 persons the church was the largest meeting space owned by the African-American community in the western United States before World War II. The church hosted the national convention of the NAACP three times in 1928 1942 and 1949. The 1928 convention was the first time the NAACP held its national convention in the western United States. Prominent speakers included W. E. B. Du Bois and poet Alice Dunbar Nelson.
The congregation was active in campaigns against racial discrimination. This included housing public beaches swimming pools and restaurants. In 1954 the congregation contributed $1500 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. This was to print the briefs used in the Brown v. Board of Education case. The church also provided scholarship funds to Ralph Bunche. He would later win the Nobel Peace Prize. This allowed him to attend UCLA. Second Baptist was the West Coast home for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He spoke there many times from 1956 to 1968. Other speakers included Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
In recent decades the demographics of the neighborhood around Second Baptist Church changed. As of 2007 it was 40% African American and over 50% Latino. Many Second Baptist members moved to other areas. Rev. William Epps kept Second Baptist in the building. The church remains predominantly African-American. The church’s nursery school was 98% Latino as of 2007. Second Baptist has rented its sanctuary to Spanish-speaking Protestant congregations for services.