About Us

First Calvary Baptist Church traces its roots to Columbia's Black Baptist community before the Civil War. At that time, Black Baptists, both free and enslaved, were not permitted to hold independent worship services and were required to worship in the balcony of First Baptist Church. Leadership passed from Rev. Sancho Taylor to Rev. Franklin "Frank" Dobbins, an enslaved preacher, who guided the congregation through the Civil War.

After the war, freed Black Baptists sought to establish their own church. With assistance from missionaries sent by the Home Mission Society, the scattered congregation reorganized in 1865 and began worshipping under a brush arbor. Later that year, Calvary Baptist Church was formally established in the basement of Sister Mann's home. Rev. Samuel H. Johnson was selected as the church's first pastor, while Rev. Dobbins helped organize Zion Baptist Church.

Under Rev. Johnson's fourteen-year leadership, the church grew steadily. The congregation purchased property on Richland Street in 1867 and built its first church building there in 1875. Following Johnson's death in 1879, leadership passed to Rev. A.P. Dunbar, but disagreements over his youth led some members to leave and form what became First Nazareth Baptist Church.

Further division occurred in the 1880s when Rev. Dunbar returned from theological studies and lost a leadership dispute to Rev. John C. Daniels. Dunbar's supporters formed Second Calvary Baptist Church in 1889, while the remaining congregation renamed itself First Calvary Baptist Church.

The church experienced periods of instability in the early 1900s before Rev. Samuel S. Youngblood became pastor in 1927. His long and respected ministry strengthened both the church and the wider African-American community. After his death, Rev. Maxie S. Gordon became pastor and helped lead the congregation through a controversial relocation from Richland Street to the Pine and Washington Streets site. After years of legal disputes and temporary worship at Benedict College, the congregation moved into its new stone church.

Rev. Gordon retired in 1990 and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel K. Lewis. During Lewis's pastorate, the congregation determined that renovating the aging church was impractical and voted in 2003 to construct a new building on the same site. Designed by architect Harvey Gantt, the new $4.1 million church was completed and dedicated in August 2005.

Overall, the church's history reflects perseverance, growth, and leadership through slavery, Reconstruction, internal challenges, relocation, and modernization.