First Missionary Baptist Church (Little Rock)

The First Missionary Baptist Church (FMBC) is located at 701 South Gaines Street in Little Rock (Pulaski County). The congregation was organized in April 1845 by Wilson A. Brown, an enslaved African American man who was later freed. FMBC is the oldest African American congregation in Little Rock. The red-brick building is designed in the Gothic Revival architectural style and has two rectangular buttress towers. FMBC was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Prior to the founding of FMBC, future FMBC reverend Wilson Brown yearned for a church where African Americans held in slavery could worship and attend religious services. Brown approached his owner, Major Fields, for permission to establish a church for slaves in the area, which was granted. Brown’s goal for the new church was to provide teaching of the Bible to both enslaved and freed African Americans. The first name for the church was First Negro Baptist Church, and it was originally part of the predominately African American Ninth Street corridor.

The congregation first met at Missionary Baptist Church, a predominately white church in Little Rock, with African American parishioners sitting in the balcony and the white parishioners sitting downstairs. Brown was installed as the first reverend of FMBC in April 1845 by an unidentified minister of Missionary Baptist Church in front of a mix of white and Black parishioners.

FMBC’s congregation met regularly outdoors at a brush arbor on the corner of Tenth and Spring Streets from 1845 to 1882. This was replaced with their permanent home at 701 South Gaines Street in 1882 on land donated by Chester Ashley. The church building houses the original stained glass and the original pipe organ, added in 1915, which is still used in services. In 2022, FMBC and Mount Harmony Baptist Church merged congregations, with plans of turning FMBC into a museum and preserving the church building. The two congregations merged administratively.

The church has hosted several state and national leaders, such as Booker T. Washington in 1913; Benjamin E. Mays, who visited FMBC numerous times during Roland Smith’s tenure from 1947 to 1965; Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 (four months prior to delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech); Governor Bill Clinton in 1990; and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2025.

Women have served an important role in the life of FMBC with the development and growth of the church auxiliaries and clubs. The women of FMBC serve in various administrative roles such as financial secretary, church clerk, and Board of Trustees members. Following the merger between FMBC and Mount Harmony Baptist Church, several female members continued to serve as ministers and evangelists.

Reverends of First Missionary Baptist Church

Name	Dates
Wilson Brown	1845–1870
Reuben (R. B.) White	1871–1886
Joseph Patterson (J. P.) Robinson	1887–1937
Emmanual C. (E. C.) Dyer	1938–1948
Roland S. Smith	1949–1966
Roland Raines	1966–1968
Vernon (V.) Castle Stewart	1968–1972
William H. Marley	1973–1978
J. N. Duhart (Interim)	1979
Lawrence H. Evans	1979–1993
Leon Jones	1993–1997
Gary D. Champ	1998–2002
Marvell Williams	2003–2017
Tony Byers	2017–2021
Cameron Mitchell	2022–

For additional information:
Archie Moore Jr. Collection of Black Americana. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/searchterm/BC.MSS.03.01 (accessed December 18, 2025).

Braimah, Ayodele. “First Missionary Baptist Church, Little Rock, Arkansas (1845–).” Black Past, June 30, 2014. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/first-missionary-baptist-church-little-rock-arkansas-1845/ (accessed December 18, 2025).

Central Arkansas Library System. “First Missionary Baptist Church at 180.” Legacies & Lunch. YouTube, February 5, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stey1wn1lJ4 (accessed December 18, 2025). [see Related Web Video in sidebar]

DeClark, Sarah. “Steeped in History: New Growth Springs from Old Historic Black Church in Downtown Little Rock.” AY Magazine, May 3, 2024. https://aymag.com/new-growth-springs-from-old-at-historic-black-church/ (accessed December 18, 2025).

Ferguson, MJ. “Black History in Motion: Profound Lessons of Love from First Missionary Baptist Church.” Arkansas Strong, February 26, 2025. https://arstrong.org/black-history-in-motion-profound-lessons-of-love-from-first-missionary-baptist-church/ (accessed December 18, 2025).

“First Missionary Baptist Church.” National Register of Historic Places registration form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-preservation/properties/national-registry (accessed December 18, 2025).

Mancino, Parker. “Historic Church Celebrates 180 Years.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 28, 2025, pp. 1B, 2B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/apr/27/little-rocks-first-missionary-baptist-one-of/ (accessed December 18, 2025).

Purifoy, Melissa A, ed. First Missionary Baptist Church. Little Rock, AR: 2008.

Schnedler, Jack. “Historic Congregations.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 20, 2022, pp. 1E, 6E. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/dec/20/historic-congregations/ (accessed December 18, 2025).