Image of the Week
As part of the Black History Month Blog, VCU Libraries would like to spotlight rare images of African American life in Virginia. Our first image is a rare interior view of First African Baptist Church. Located at College and Broad on what is now the MCV campus, the building was built in 1876. It replaced an older structure (built 1802) that housed Richmond's First Baptist Church, a congregation made up of whites, slaves, and some free blacks. The white congregation moved to a new church building at Broad and Tenth in 1841. The First African Baptist Church building was sold to the Medical College of Virginia in 1955 when the congregation moved to a new location in Richmond's North Side. The 1876 structure still stands. It is now called the Randolph-Minor Annex.
The image of the church is taken from Souvenir Views: Negro Enterprise and Residences, Richmond, Va. This 1907 publication has nearly 50 images showing over 100 views of Richmond's African American community is part of the Library of Congress' American Memory site, what is described as a "digital record of American history and creativity."
-- Ray Bonis, Special Collections and Archives.