Description

This is a photograph of the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Gospel Chorus taken in 1960. Rev. O.B. Williams stands on the far left. The church is a revered institution that has consistently served as a hub of political, civic, & spiritual life in Portland’s African-American community since its inception. Started as the First Baptist Church of Burton Homes in 1944 Vancouver, Washington, most of the early congregants were African-Americans from the South who migrated to the Pacific Northwest seeking employment in the defense industry during World War II. The church moved twice after V-Day with the closing of the eponymous Burton Homes & Bagley Downs housing projects, prompting a move to segregated Portland’s burgeoning Black enclave in the Albina neighborhood in 1946. During this period the congregation also changed leadership with the appointment of O.B. Williams as pastor, a title he would hold for almost fifty years. After briefly occupying the Prince’s Hall Masonic Temple at 116 NE Russell, the congregation purchased & rehabilitated a dilapidated building at 1914 N. Vancouver in 1947 (subsequently this property was razed for the construction of I-5). The new home was also accompanied by a new name, Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church. In the aftermath of the Vanport flood in 1948, many displaced residents from that housing project’s Community Baptist Church joined Vancouver Avenue. As more African Americans were forced to settle in Albina, Reverend Williams was pushed to seek another space just a few years later. The shrinking Central Methodist Church, a...

Record Contributed By

Oregon Historical Society Research Library

Record Harvested From

Northwest Digital Heritage