Second Baptist Church

Calling themselves the Second Baptist Society, a small group of Battle Creek African Americans worshipped in their homes prior to 1849. That year, led by the Reverends Parmelee and Harris of the white First Baptist Church, they officially organized as a church and purchased a building from the Methodists. The Reverend J. W. Lackley was the first pastor. In 1930 the congregation incorporated as the Second Missionary Baptist Church.