The History of a Black Presbyterian Church

The History of a Black Presbyterian Church. . , 1807 - Today , Center City and South Philadelphia were once home to a mass of African American families. Slavery ended in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s, which led to the development of a Free Black community. Philadelphia also became a landmark of the Underground Railroad and abolitionist movement. By the mid-1800s, the city's Black population had grown into a thriving community., Black churches of all denominations were created due to discrimination in religious institutions. For the Black community, church became a place for self-expression, organization, outreach, and refuge, especially for those who escaped slavery., This is the history of one such church, Lombard Central Presbyterian., 1807 , John Gloucester and the First African Presbyterian Church , John Gloucester was born into slavery in 1776. He was eventually purchased, freed, and mentored by a Presbyterian missionary and began preaching as a young man., Gloucester became the first Black ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church and founded the First African Presbyterian Church in 1807., 1844 , Stephen Gloucester and Lombard Street Central Church , Stephen Gloucester, born enslaved in Tennessee in 1802, was the son of John Gloucester., Stephen was a teacher, abolitionist, and publisher of The Colored American newspaper. A minister of Second African Presbyterian Church he went on to create Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church in 1844., Lombard Street Central Presbyterian and Members , Stephen Gloucester preached at the newly formed Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church to a congregation of free and self-emancipated people, and to abolitionists.,

"Their 430 members include some of the most respectable Negro families in the city" , W.E.B. Du Bois

, [Captions:] , ■ William Still, 1821-1902 (above left), writer, businessman, abolitionist, and conductor of the Underground Railroad., ■ Christopher J. Perry, 1854-1921 (left) founder of The Philadelphia Tribune., ■ Locations of Second African Presbyterian Church, burned during the Lombard Street Riots of 1842, and today's Presbyterian Historical Society (circled below). Lombard Street Central was near 9th Street.