The Dark Church Building Every Moment Civil Rights Headquarter As Well As Community Center: Chicago's Quinn Chapel Ame Church Building As Well As Olivet Baptist Church

Photo: Quinn Chapel Church inwards Chicago

QUINN CHAPEL A.M.E. CHURCH

Founded inwards 1844, the Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church is Chicago's oldest Black religious congregation. The church building was named later on Bishop William Paul Quinn, a fundamental figure inwards the westward expansion of African Methodism.

In 1850, the U.S.A. Congress passed a to a greater extent than severe Fugitive Slave Law which said that whatever white mortal amongst no to a greater extent than than a sworn witness could claim a Black mortal equally his escaped slave together with legally secure the private to petition earlier a federal commissioner. In its swift reaction, Quinn Chapel passed a resolution stating “We who bring tasted liberty are laid upwards to exclaim, inwards the linguistic communication of Patrick Henry: 'Give us liberty, or give us death.'” The congregation at ane time mobilized its forces to picket for slave hunters.

Quinn Chapel's pulpit has been graced amongst Black leaders such equally Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, together with doc Martin Luther King, Jr. Quinn Chapel helped constitute the Bethel A.M.E. Church, Wabash Avenue YMCA, together with Provident Hospital, the starting fourth dimension Black-owned infirmary inwards the nation. The electrical flow gray-stone brick edifice of this Black establishment is designed inwards a Romanesque architectural mode that was erected inwards 1892. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church is located at 2401 S. Wabash Avenue inwards Chicago, Illinois.

Photo: Olivet Baptist Church

OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH

Olivet Baptist Church is ane of the oldest Baptist churches inwards Chicago. Founded Apr 6, 1850, this congregation was an active station on the Underground Railroad. Its pastor was a leading fellow member of the Vigilance Committee which was organized to assist runaway slaves together with struggle the Fugitive Slave Law.

By the 1920s, nether the leadership of Lacy Kirk Williams, who became pastor of the church building inwards 1915, Olivet Baptist Church became ane of the close prominent Black churches inwards the nation. From 1915 to 1920, the church's membership to a greater extent than than doubled. Under the leadership of Williams, Olivet was non alone a religious middle but a community center. During this time, a full-time staff of xvi operated a programme that included a undertaking bureau, nursery, kindergarten, a private welfare department, inwards improver to a community lodge family together with athletic facilities. Olivet Baptist Church is located at 401 E. 31st Street inwards Chicago, Illinois.