Concord Baptist Church

Place Matters Profile

Brooklyn’s Concord Baptist Church of Christ is the fourth largest Protestant congregation in the country and one of Brooklyn’s largest African American churches. Founded over 150 years ago and housed in six different buildings during its history, the church has long played a central role in the political and social landscape of Bedford-Stuyvesant and beyond.

Overview

Started by abolitionists in 1847, Concord Baptist’s first home was on Concord Street at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, giving it the name it has retained throughout its history. As the church’s congregation grew it moved four more times–to nearby Canton Street, then to Duffield Street in downtown Brooklyn, then to Adelphi Street in what is now Fort Green, and finally to its current location in Bedford-Stuyvesant. This movement not only reflects a search for larger spaces, but also mirrors the movement of Brooklyn’s African-American population from the waterfront that once employed many slaves and free blacks to the more residential communities of Fort Greene and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

When the congregation arrived in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1939 it was housed in a gothic church with a spiraling steeple that was formerly home to a predominantly white congregation. Thirteen years later an electrical fire destroyed this building. Banding together, congregation members, though not wealthy, were able to raise a million dollars for a new building on the same site. Completed in 1956, this modern brick gothic-inspired structure is notable for its large stained glass windows and red double-doors. The church’s proactive social programs also led to the creation of a number of other adjacent buildings including a credit union, elementary school, nursing home, and an apartment building for seniors. The church and its membership also played a role in the Civil Rights Movement and other national political movements and, through its Concord Baptist Church Fund, the church donated funds to other community programs and organizations. Thus the current Concord Baptist truly embodies the notion of the church in the community.

A History of Leadership and Action

Concord Baptist’s history is one of strong leadership and an ever-expanding role in its neighborhood. The church has had just ten pastors in its 157-year existence, the first five of whom covered only fifteen years. The church’s first pastor and one of its founders was a fervent African-American abolitionist named Samson White. White, pastor from 1847-1850, was followed by Leonard Black (1851-1852), a fugitive slave who was forced to flee to maintain his freedom when the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted in 1850. Three other pastors, Simon Bundick (1852-1856), John Carey (1858-1862), and William Barnett (1862-1863), followed in quick succession between 1852 and 1863 (Sampson White also served for a second brief term during this time).

At the time of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 Concord Baptist acquired the first of its long-serving pastors, William T. Dixon, an educator from Virginia. Known as “Father Dixon,” he gave Concord a strong education focus during his 46-year tenure. His service to the church was memorialized in a stained glass window in the Adelphi Street church location, which remains today in what is now the Institutional Church of God in Christ. Dixon was followed by William M. Moss who served as Concord Baptist’s pastor for ten years. An avid follower of W.E.B. Dubois’ teachings, Moss passionately promoted the idea that a “Talented Tenth”–preachers, teachers and other professionals and elite — were responsible for uplifting the masses. Through the church, he organized literacy campaigns, spelling bees, and adult education programs. He was also very involved with the founding of the Urban League; in fact, his son would later become the League’s national director.

In 1920 James B. Adams, a 26 year-old Morehouse College graduate and former WWI army chaplain, became the church’s interim pastor. Unmarried, he was non-traditional in many ways, and resigned after only eight months because of conflicts between his ‘young’ ways and those of the older members. Attracted to his unconventionality, a young group at Concord organized a campaign that successfully brought Adams back as pastor until his death in 1946. Once reinstated, Adams continued unconventional practices such as employing the church’s first full-time lay educator and organizing a group of (mainly white) pastors who ordained a woman in 1938. He also encouraged music at Concord, helping the church to become known for its black composers including Edward Boatner who wrote “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me,” and “I Just Came From the Fountain.” Adams was pastor during the Great Depression, often standing in bread lines for proud parishioners and bringing food to their back doors at night to spare them embarrassment. Adams died while planning the church’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Gardner C. Taylor came to the church as pastor in 1948 and served until 1990. Reverend Taylor continued Concord’s focus on education, music, and community-based development and politics. He also personally delivered money raised in Brooklyn to Dr. King’s movement in Alabama. In the church’s local community he created institutional responses to social needs: just two years after he arrived, he began the Concord Baptist Credit Union, which now has seven million in assets; in 1961, he began the Concord Baptist Elementary School; in 1975, he helped establish the Concord Nursing Home; in 1983, Concord Baptist secured federal HUD support to develop a 32-apartment building for senior residents; and in 1988, Taylor helped to found the Concord Baptist Christ Fund, a one million dollar endowment used to grant money to worthy social organizations for uplift. Since then Concord has given over a million dollars to housing programs, churches, after-school and senior programs, and other community programs and organizations.

Dr. Gary V. Simpson, the current pastor who followed Taylor in 1990, continued Taylor’s efforts and has added a Family Services initiative, which includes foster care, adoption, preventive health services, and computer care and repair. Simpson’s ministry focuses on two major constituencies that he calls “book-ends”–youth and seniors–“the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.” Of the congregation’s 4,000 active members, over 800 have been in the church for over 40 years. Concord Baptist’s older congregants reflect the northward migrations by African Americans during the 1920s and 1930s, primarily from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, and Concord is now also home to many recent African and Caribbean immigrants.

Under Reverend Simpson the church continues to be committed to bolstering the neighborhood and providing community leadership. In fact, according to Simpson Concord is now the largest employer in Central Brooklyn other than the City of New York. Today Concord is challenged, like many of the other old Brooklyn churches, by the legacy of its large role in the community.