Black History

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 1866 – 2019

HOUSTON FORWARD TIMES — The historic Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, will celebrate 153 years of ministry and service to the community

Published

6 years ago

February 22, 2019

Oakland Post

By Jeffery L. Boney

As we celebrate Black History Month during the month of February, it is fitting that the Forward Times highlights one of Houston’s oldest Black institutions.

This upcoming Sunday, February 24, 2019, the historic Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, will celebrate 153 years of ministry and service to the community, and the entire Greater Houston will have an opportunity to participate in this grand occasion. Antioch is located near downtown Houston at 500 Clay Street. Parking validation tickets will be available for those who attend.

Antioch’s new Senior Pastor, John F. Johnson, has invited Rev. Manson B. Johnson of Holman Street Baptist Church to serve as the guest minister for the scheduled 4:00 pm worship service. Rev. Anthony Macbeth and the United Praise Chorale will lead the praise and worship, and there will be a reception of fellowship immediately following the anniversary celebration at the church. Everyone is being encouraged to wear the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church colors of red, gold, or a combination of the two.

In January of 1866 – seven months after slaves were freed in Texas on June 19, 1865 – a small group of formerly enslaved people of African descent organized the first African American Baptist Church in Houston, which is now known as Antioch Missionary Baptist Church.

Those former enslaved descendants of Africa organized that church with the assistance of First Baptist Church and several missionaries. After initially holding worship services at First Baptist Church and at German Baptist Church, those formerly enslaved Blacks began holding their worship services on Buffalo Bayou in a “Brush Arbor”, and later moved their worship services to “Baptist Hill,” located at Rusk and Bagby. They remained at “Baptist Hill” until they were able to purchase another site location.

Starting off, worship services were conducted by various ministers who traveled to different locations at stated times. However, in 1868, one of the members of Antioch, John Henry “Jack” Yates, was ordained at the first Association meeting that was held for the African American Baptist Churches, and after that first National Baptist Convention, the Rev. Jack Yates was installed as the first-ever pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church.

As the membership of Antioch grew, and as additional space was needed, Rev. Yates led the church to purchase its current site and to build a brick structure. The church, located in the center of Freedman’s Town, was the center of activity for the African American community. It was the first brick structure built in the city of Houston, and it was the first one owned by African Americans in the city. Antioch provided formerly enslaved people of African descent with opportunities to not only learn about God, but the church also provided ministries to help them develop educationally, economically and socially.

The first educational opportunity for formerly enslaved people of African descent began at Antioch, as Rev. Yates began the Baptist Academy with the help of two missionaries. The Baptist Academy taught Black people basic fundamentals such as reading, writing and arithmetic. In addition to that, Antioch was instrumental in teaching Blacks various trades, which enabled Black men and women to start their own businesses. The Baptist Academy later became known as Houston College, which was the forerunner of Texas Southern University (TSU).

Other major initiatives that were strongly encouraged and supported at Antioch included economic development and recreational activities.

The Old Landmark Baptist Association of Texas was organized at Antioch. Under Rev. Yates’ leadership, members were encouraged and assisted in buying property, owning homes and businesses. The historic Emancipation Park, in conjunction with Trinity Methodist Church, was purchased by Rev. Yates and a few other Blacks, in order to provide recreational activities and allow community celebrations for Blacks, such as Juneteenth.

With the vision and support of Rev. Yates and Antioch, the first African American college in the state of Texas, Bishop College, was formed. Just as they did then, Antioch’s congregation and leaders continue to provide needed and vital services to the Houston community.

The entire community is being invited out to attend this historic church and event during the Black History Month. For additional information, please call the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church office at 713.652.0738 or visit www.ambchouston.org.

This article originally appeared in the Houston Forward Times.

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Activism

Four Bills Focus on Financial Compensation for Descendants of Enslaved People

This week, CBM examines four more bills in the package — each offering ways for Black Californians to receive restitution for past injustices — from housing assistance and reclamation of loss property to fairer pay and the establishment of a state agency charged with determining eligibility for reparations.

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

Edward Henderson
California Black Media

Last week, California Black Media (CBM) provided an update on four bills in the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) 2025 Road to Repair package.

The 16 bills in the Black Caucus’s 2025 “Road to Repair” package focus on “repairing the generational harms caused by the cruel treatment of African American slaves in the United States and decades of systemic deprivation and injustice inflicted upon Black Californians,” said the CLBC in a release.

This week, CBM examines four more bills in the package — each offering ways for Black Californians to receive restitution for past injustices — from housing assistance and reclamation of lost property to fairer pay and the establishment of a state agency charged with determining eligibility for reparations.

Here are summaries of these bills, information about their authors, and updates on how far each one has advanced in the legislative process.

Assembly Bill (AB) 57

AB 57, introduced by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), would require that at least 10% of the monies in the state’s home purchase assistance fund be made available to applicants who meet the requirements for a loan under the home purchase assistance program and are descendants of formerly enslaved people.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee is currently reviewing the legislation.

Assembly Bill (AB) 62

AB 62, also introduced by McKinnor, would require the Office of Legal Affairs to review, investigate, and make specific determinations regarding applications from people who claim they are the dispossessed owners of property seized from them because of racially motivated eminent domain. The bill would define “racially motivated eminent domain” to mean when the state acquires private property for public use and does not provide just compensation to the owner, due in whole or in part, to the owner’s race.

AB 62 is currently under review in the Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill (SB) 464

SB 464, introduced by Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles), aims to strengthen the existing civil rights laws in California concerning employer pay data reporting. The bill mandates that private employers with 100 or more employees submit annual pay data reports to the Civil Rights Department. These reports must include detailed demographic information — including race, ethnicity, sex, and sexual orientation — pertaining to their workforce distribution and compensation across different job categories. Furthermore, beginning in 2027, public employers will also be required to comply with these reporting requirements.

The Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment, and Rules is currently reviewing SB 464. A hearing is expected to be held on April 23.

Senate Bill (SB) 518

SB 518, introduced by Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego), establishes the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to address and remedy the lasting harms of slavery and the Jim Crow laws suffered by Black Californians.

SB 518 is under review in the Senate Judiciary Committee. A hearing is expected to be held on April 22.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

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Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.