First Baptist Church, Farmville

This photograph shows First Baptist Church as it appeared in 2002, with a young child walking on the lawn. First Baptist Church in Farmville was founded in 1867 by the Black residents of the town, who wished to have their own place of worship. The building was constructed around 1895, in an example of Late Gothic Revival architecture. Always a place of worship for the Black community of Farmville, First Baptist became a center of civil rights organizing in the 1950s under Reverend L. Francis Griffin. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the church in 1962. First Baptist is part of the Farmville Historic District and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.