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Oldest African American church in Michigan; administrative records, papers of individual pastors, church publications.

This record group thoroughly documents Second Baptist's efforts to tend to both the spiritual and physical needs of Black Detroiters since the 1920s. The Administration, Pastors' Papers, Publications, and Photographs series reflect, respectively, the internal workings of the church, the private efforts of the pastors over time, and the publicly presented external face of Second Baptist. The microfilm (representing 6 linear feet of manuscript material) consists of annual reports, financial records, histories, minutes of advisory board meetings, pastoral correspondence, annual and quarterly publications, and weekly bulletins. There is also a scattering of photographs. The work of Second Baptist before the 1920s is visible retrospectively in histories and reminiscences sanctioned by the church in the 1930s. The records of the church for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were evidently destroyed in the fires of 1916 and 1917.

Church formed in 1971 from the merger of two Detroit, Michigan, Episcopal parishes. Records include historical and informational files; vestry minutes and treasurer's records; records of church organizations; publications and church bulletins; subject files; scrapbooks; and photographs.

The records of St. Matthew's and St. Joseph's Episcopal Church divide into the following record series: the records of St. Matthew's (before the 1971 merger); the records of St. Joseph's (before the 1971 merger); the records of the merged church (1971 to the present); photographs, oral history project, and Sara Hunter collected materials.