Emmanuel Baptist Church

In 1917, deep into World War I, a strike broke out at the Marlin Rockwell plant. As the war progressed and America's Industrial Revolution gathered steam, workers were in serious demand. It was under these conditions that Marlin Rockwell sent recruiters throughout the south to recruit black workers and bring them to Jamestown to break the strike and keep the plant productive. Among those workers was the Rev. John Elias.

Many of the workers brought to Jamestown were Baptists who worshiped in the A.M.E. Zion Church and in various homes because there was no Baptist church in the city. In December 1919, 14 people gathered in the Cross Street home of Mr. and Mrs. Napoleon Andrews. As a result of that meeting, the First Colored Baptist Church was organized. The Rev. Julius Young of Philadelphia was its first pastor.

But the church still lacked a formal meeting house. Eventually, just as the gathering became too large to continue meeting in the homes of congregants, the white congregation at First Baptist Church came to the aid of their fellow Baptists and allowed them to use that church's basement on Sunday afternoons.

It was 1920 before the First Colored Baptist Church had its own building; that year, Danish Congregational of Jamestown disbanded and, with the assistance of the Chautauqua Baptist Association, the new Baptist church acquired the Institute Street building.

The First Colored Baptist Church was officially incorporated on Dec. 2, 1920, and not long after, its name was changed to Emmanuel Baptist Church.