QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 16, 2023 Page 20 For the latest news EDITION visit qchron.com 45TH ANNIVERSARY • 2023
45th Anniversary Edition
153 years of Ebenezer Baptist Queens’ oldest Baptist church has storied history
marks Preservation Commission. The house was deemed a landmark in 1995. In 1994, the church celebrated the tricentenial of Black people living in Flushing, As the oldest Baptist church in Queens, per a 1694 census. Ebenezer even received it’s no surprise that Flushing’s own Ebenezer a letter from then-President Clinton, conBaptist Church, founded in 1870, has a rich gratulating the church on the milestone and history of its own. the celebration. That’s clear from the moment one walks At a certain point, it became necessary to in the door. The walls are covered in refer to Mitchell as Rev. Timothy P. Mitchell framed photographs of the church’s pastors, — not only did his son, Timothy I. Mitchell, documents regarding the history of Flushbecome an associate pastor at Ebenezer, but ing’s Black community and plaques honorat times, the elder Mitchell was confused ing various members of the church. On the with the Rev. Timothy Mitchell at Antioch back wall of the church’s sanctuary hangs a Baptist Church in Jamaica, according to a time capsule, compiled by members in 2003 New York Daily News article. 2000. Church historian and longtime memMembers of Ebenezer joined Flushing ber Gails Bridges said she’s looking foractivist Mandingo Osceola Tshaka in the ward to opening it come 2025. (She beamed fight to recognize the approximately 1,000 when she noted that the lettering on the Black people and Native Americans whose front of the time capsule had been painted bodies were buried under what was then by her daughter.) called the Martin’s Field Playground. Some But over the years, Ebenezer has also sent letters to area elected officials, urging become deeply ingrained in Queens’ own Flushing’s Ebenezer Baptist Church is the oldest Baptist church in Queens at 153 years old. It them to remove the playground and replace history, particularly when it came to uplift- has been at its current home on Prince Street for roughly 50 years. PHOTO BY SOPHIE KRICHEVSKY it with a memorial. Ultimately, Tshaka ing the borough’s Black community and the worked to broker a compromise, under the leadership of likely the church’s most ough called Queens, and I want to go to that fight for civil rights more broadly. While the church has always been on well-known pastor in its 153 years, the Rev. Ebenezer.’” From there, the two reverends which the playground would remain and a Timothy P. Mitchell. According to Mobley, developed a friendship. Mitchell would go memorial would be built at the park. That Prince Street near Northern Boulevard, the on to lead the New York chapter of the Poor was officially unveiled in 2021. Mitchell wanted the church to have the tallbuilding itself has gone through three differNeither Latimer nor Tshaka had any affilPeople’s Campaign. ent iterations. Before the first went up, est steeple in all of Queens. But Mitchell’s involvement — and by iation with Ebenezer. But that did not matter Why? Just because he could? “That’s a Bridges told the Chronicle, services and meetings were held at members’ homes, good way of putting it,” Mobley said, though extension, the church’s — with the Civil to Mitchell, Bridges said; in his view, supmany of whom lived or had businesses along it’s not clear if the steeple actually is the tall- Rights Movement was not limited to the porting Black people in Queens was the natnational push. He and members became ural thing to do. While sometimes that Prince Street, Main Street, Northern Boule- est in the World’s Borough. meant organizing marches, other times that Known for his work at the church and as a active in a number of Queens efforts, as well. vard and College Point Boulevard. In 1972, Mitchell advocated for the con- meant providing hot meals to the needy. civil rights activist, Mitchell came to EbeneThe church’s first edifice was built under Over his 46 years in the role, Mitchell struction of a low-income housing complex the Rev. J.C. Brown, who was pastor there zer as an infant (he was even baptized there), had become known as the “Prince of Prince between 1907 and 1913, according to one as his father, the Rev. James Mitchell, served in Forest Hills; the controversial project was as the church’s pastor. The elder Mitchell viewed as a symbol of the predominantly Street,” Bridges said. As she put it in a previchurch document summarizing the congrewould hold that post for 17 years. white and Jewish neighborhood’s resistance ous interview with the Chronicle, “[Mitchgation’s history. But that did not ell] would walk down the street and could Meanwhile, Mitchell grew up in to integration. When future Gov. Mario last long, per the same document CIVIL the community, attending Flushing Cuomo, then a young lawyer whom Mayor talk to anybody ... “He asked you to do — within a decade of its estabQ High School, Queens College and Lindsay appointed to assess the controversy, things for the church — you did them.” lishment, the building was RIGHTS New York University Seminary. A put forth a compromise that would cut the destroyed in a fire; the Rev. W.J. number of Mitchell family photos size of the three proposed buildings in half, Lucas was pastor at the time. The hang on the wall near the landing Mitchell made his opposition known at a church was rebuilt for $6,000 City Hall hearing on the project. The next of the church’s lower level. (which is equivalent to more than day, Sept. 21, 1972, an unhappy Mitchell After serving in the Korean $120,000 today). That building, 36-06 Prince St., is next door to Ebenezer’s War, Mitchell returned to Ebenezer in 1961 could be seen toward the back of a photo on home today, located at 36-12 Prince St.; to become the church’s pastor. Around that the front page of The New York Times. According to Bridges, Mitchell was conEbenezer’s former building is now occupied time, Mitchell marched with the Albany Freedom Movement, an early effort in the stantly leading marches in the streets of by the Queens Baptist Church. Flushing, always with his signature bullhorn The church moved into its current home Civil Rights Movement led by the Student in approximately 1974, — or “marched in,” Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the in hand. The bullhorn has become a prized as both Bridges and the Rev. Carlton Mobley NAACP and, later, King’s own Southern artifact of Ebenezer’s; according to Mobley, it went unused from the time of Mitchell’s Christian Leadership Conference. put it many times. And while he was once even jailed with passing in 2012 to this past summer, when “In the Black Baptist church tradition, the church celebrated the 10th anniversary of when they build a new building, they’ll go King during that effort, according to Moboutside, go down the block just a little bit to ley, that’s not how Mitchell came to know a street co-naming in his honor. When the home of Lewis Latimer — then say they ‘marched in’ there,” Mobley said the civil rights hero. Mobley said he’d been told the story by the Rev. Al Sharpton. on Kissena Boulevard and Holly Avenue — when asked about the turn of phrase. “People like to say, ‘We marched in,’ I mean, it’s “Everybody wanted to get to know who Tim faced the possibility of being torn down for right next door — you really didn’t march,” Mitchell was,” Mobley said. Plus, King was development in 1988, Mitchell helped form he said with a chuckle. He suspected the a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Committee to Save the Latimer House, Atlanta, Mobley noted. So while on a trip to and ultimately got it moved to the intersec- The Rev. Timothy P. Mitchell was known for his term originated, in one form or another, with New York, Sharpton told Mobley, “[King] tion of Leavitt Street and 137th Street, civil rights activism as Ebenezer’s longtime the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. PHOTO BY LIZ RHOADES / FILE pastor. said, ‘I want to go to this church in your bor- according to a document from the LandThe new church building was built under
by Sophie Krichevsky Associate Editor
