New Bethel Baptist Church

New Bethel Baptist Church. . , The Helping Hand Society, a local prayer group, established the New Bethel Baptist Church in March 1932. Five ministers served as pastor through 1982: V. L. Bolton. H. H. Coleman, N. H. Armstrong. William E. Ramsey and C. L. Franklin. In June 1961 Franklin, the father of Aretha Franklin, purchased this building after the congregation was forced to leave its site at 4210 Hastings Street in Paradise Valley for construction of the Chrysler Freeway. This building was constructed in 1927 as the Orient Theater and renamed the Oriole the same year. Franklin commissioned local architect Nathan Johnson to redesign it as a church. The redesign was considered "the first major" all-Black building project in Detroit. Church services began here on March 10, 1963., In May 1963 a meeting here led to the founding of the Detroit Council for Human Rights with C. L. Franklin as chairman. The council led the planning of the June 23, 1963, Walk to Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a precursor to the "I Have a Dream" speech that he later delivered in Washington, D.C. On March 30, 1969, the national convention of the Republic of New Africa was being held in the church when a shooting outside left one police officer dead and another injured. A dozen or more officers responded and fired indiscriminately into the church. The 142 individuals who were inside were arrested and held incommunicado. That night 139 of them were released through the efforts of Recorder's Court Judge George Crockett. The remaining three were later acquitted of all charges.