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Our History
The Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church was organized in November 1841. It grew out of a civil rights movement demanding the abolition of slavery and other political and social tensions centering around this issue. The movement for the abolition of slavery was similar in many ways to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in that the abolitionists appealed for use of economic and political boycotts, demonstrations and armed revolt.
In October 1841, John F. Cook, who was already a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, petitioned the Presbytery of the District of Columbia to become a licentiate as a Presbyterian minister with the possibility of organizing a church "for the people of color." In order to qualify as a Presbyterian Minister, Cook came under the care of the Presbytery in 1841 and was given instruction in Presbyterian polity by the Rev. John C. Smith, pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church. On October 23, 1841, Cook issued a public notice, authorized by the Presbytery which was circulated and read in the white Presbyterian churches.
The notice invited the black members of several Presbyterian churches to meet in "consideration of the propriety of forming a colored Presbyterian Church and Congreation in this city." The first meeting was held on November 3, 1841, in the home of David Carroll, one of the first elders, elected, and a resolution was drawn up to withdraw from the local churches. It was further resolved that "We do organize ourselves into a Presbyterian Church in union with and under the care of the Presbytery of the District of Columbia." On November 21, 1841, the Presbytery adopted a resolution formally establishing the First Colored Presbyterian Church of Washington City.
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