First Baptist Church, Bute Street

First Baptist Church, Bute Street. . Norfolk's first Baptist congregation was established around 1800 as an interracial body of whites, free blacks and slaves. Most of the white congregation split off in 1817. The remaining, primarily black, congregation moved in 1830 to an old salt-storage warehouse on Bute Street that came to be known as "the old salt box." The present church building (1906) stands on the site of this structure., The scale and strength of the architecture are symbolic of the church's leadership role in the community. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, First Baptist initiated programs to help prepare citizens for upcoming social and legislative changes. In September 1958, when Virginia Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr. closed Norfolk's all-white junior and senior high schools rather than admit 17 black students who had been assigned there, the church initiated a tutoring program for "The Norfolk 17" so that their education would not be interrupted, and to prepare them to handle any racial resistance they might encounter when the schools reopened. After a legal fight, Norfolk's six closed public schools reopened on a desegregated basis on 2 February 1959, marking the end of Massive Resistance in Norfolk. , City of Norfolk. (captions) , The Old Salt Box Image courtesy of First Baptist Church, Bute Street , The Norfolk 17 Photo courtesy of Time, Inc.