Zion Baptist Church

Founded in 1884, Zion Baptist Church is one of Nebraska's oldest churches and became Omaha's largest African American church by 1900. After the Easter tornado of 1913 destroyed the church's first worship facility, the congregation built the now-historic building in 1915. Clarence W. Wigington, Omaha's first African-American Architect, designed the church building. The church has played a pivotal role in each chapter of Omaha's long movement for civil rights from the Great Migration to the protests against segregation in the 1960s.

Zion Baptist was the city's largest Black congregation in the early twentieth century, and members played a vital role in Omaha's Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. The local chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) met at Zion for decades, starting in the early 1910s. In 1919, shortly before the lynching of Will Brown, William Monroe Trotter, editor of the proactive, pro-Black Boston Guardian, spoke at Zion Baptist Church. After the lynching and subsequent 1919 Omaha race riots, numerous meetings took place at the church with members taking a leading role in the Black community's response to the tragic events of 1919. 

One example of Zion's influence comes from one of its members: Dorothy Eure, Nebraska's first African American paralegal. Eure spent most of her life as an avid civil rights activist and social justice advocate and also acted in early Black gospel films and, with her sons, formed the Afro Academy of Dramatic Arts in North Omaha. As a teen, she organized petitions for the Omaha Public Schools to hire more Black educators. As an adult, she actively participated in Omaha's De Porres Club and its successor, the 4CL. She routinely attended protests and often brought her young sons with her. Additionally, she represented numerous Legal Aid Society clients involved in employment and housing disputes. She successfully exposed the unequal education offered to Black youth, which led to court-ordered busing and school desegregation.

During the 1950s and 1960s, when protests and calls for social change grew prevalent throughout the nation, Zion Baptist Church took an active role in the city's struggle for Civil Rights, including organizing and participating in protests. Also, Omaha Urban League leader Whitney Young regularly spoke at the church, as did NCAAP's Roy Wilkins. During the early 1960s, Zion's Rev. Rudolph McNair co-founded the Citizens Civic Committee for Civil Liberties or 4CL; they held meetings at the church.

Biga, Leo Adam. "The Black Church in Omaha." Noise Omaha. July 15, 2021. https://www.noiseomaha.com/profiles/2021/7/1/0lxvfpwjk1n8qopmp0u5tt6trnx3xr.

Fletcher, Adam. "History of Zion Baptist Church in North Omaha." North Omaha History. 2022. https://northomahahistory.com/2016/12/21/zion-baptist-church/.