The congregation began after an incident in 1808, They named their new congregation the
Abyssinian Baptist Church after the historic name of
Ethiopia. The congregation worshiped at a number of places: first on the corner of William and Frankfort Streets, then at 44 Anthony (Worth) Street until the mortgage upon the church was foreclosed upon in 1854, at which time the congregation worshipped temporarily at 356 Broadway. Then in 1856 they established themselves at 166 Waverly Place in
Greenwich Village, an area then sometimes called "little Africa." It was during their time here that the church split into two "warring" factions, one for the Rev. William M. Spelman, who had been with them since 1855, and one desiring his removal. In 1885, Rev. Spelman was ousted from the pulpit, at which time he and his followers went to another church on 37th Street. In 1902 the congregation moved uptown with the movement of the African American population, to 242 West 40th Street, and from there to a tent pitched next to the future site of
Marcus Garvey's Liberty Hall in
Harlem, where the size of the congregation increased dramatically thanks to the preaching of Adam Clayton Powell Sr., who had become the pastor in 1908.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the future prominent German theologian, anti-Nazi activist and martyr, arrived in New York in 1930 - then a young student doing
postgraduate study at the
Union Theological Seminary. Frank Fisher, a black fellow-seminarian, introduced Bonhoeffer to the Abyssinian Church, where Bonhoeffer taught
Sunday school and formed a lifelong love for African-American
spirituals, a collection of which he took back to Germany. He heard
Adam Clayton Powell Sr. preach the Gospel of Social Justice, and became sensitive to not only social injustices experienced by minorities but also the ineptitude of the church to bring about integration. It was there that Bonhoeffer began to see things "from below"—from the perspective of those who suffer oppression. He observed, "Here one can truly speak and hear about sin and grace and the love of God... the Black Christ is preached with rapturous passion and vision." Later Bonhoeffer referred to his impressions abroad as the point at which he "turned from phraseology to reality."—themes which were on Bonhoeffer's return to Germany manifested in his outspoken opposition to the Nazi regime and especially to its persecution of the Jews, and for which Bonhoeffer eventually paid with his life. By 1930, the church had 13,000 members, making it the largest African-American church in New York City, and the largest Baptist congregation in the world. In 1972,
Samuel DeWitt Proctor became senior pastor and a prominent voice in religious and national matters. == Music ==