Filed Under African Methodist Episcopal Church

African American Churches in Jeffersonville, Indiana

Segregated Congregations Become Centers of Community

By Diane Stepro
Bethel AME
Bethel AME A fixture in Jeffersonville for over 140 years, this structure has withstood two cataclysmic floods. According to the church website, the church can boast the first African American congregation in Clark County, dating to 1842. Congregants met in homes at first before building a log church and later wooden churches. The wooden structures burned prior to the construction of the current building. In the church’s early days, a circuit rider led worship. Source: Jeffersonville Township Public Library

Before you, stands one of Clark County’s historic African American churches, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal. In the 19th Century, numerous African American churches were established to serve the spiritual needs of people fleeing the South in search of greater freedoms and economic security. Prior to the United States Civil War, African Americans had little influence in most denominations, but often attended the same churches as their White neighbors. After the Civil War, more denominations practiced segregation nationwide, with Black churches led by Black ministers. According to Carl E. Kramer's work This Place We Call Home: A History of Clark County, Indiana, local White churches refused African American potential members who arrived in Jeffersonville after the Civil War.

Kramer notes that, in response, many churches emerged to meet the spiritual needs of African Americans migrating to Clark County. Some churches met in temporary locations before they completed permanent houses of worship.

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church moved into a permanent building near Wall Street in Jeffersonville some time around 1880. Only shortly after the building's construction, the Ohio River Flood of 1883 inundated Jeffersonville, including the location of the church. Jeffersonville found itself under water again during the Great Flood of 1937. Repeated flooding destroyed many of Jeffersonville’s historical records, including the records of many African American churches. According to the church website, the original members of the church met in a log cabin, and early church meetings were conducted by a circuit rider. Like Bethel, most other Jeffersonville churches experienced record loss during the major Ohio River floods.

Another African Methodist Episcopal church emerged after the Civil War, Wesley Chapel. Wesley Chapel congregants worshipped in a building near Claysburg, Kramer reports.

Kramer notes that Reverend Phillip Simcoe and other congregants organized the First Colored Baptist Church of Jeffersonville in 1861, well before the end of the Civil War. Jeffersonville featured three African American Baptist churches at the dawn of the 20th Century: Illinois Avenue (also called Second Baptist), Indiana Avenue, and Rose Hill, according to Kramer. In 1913, the three combined to form First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, with an early membership of 400. Although it moved from Illinois Avenue to Spring Street, First Trinity Missionary Baptist church exists in Jeffersonville to this day.

Images

Bethel AME
Bethel AME A fixture in Jeffersonville for over 140 years, this structure has withstood two cataclysmic floods. According to the church website, the church can boast the first African American congregation in Clark County, dating to 1842. Congregants met in homes at first before building a log church and later wooden churches. The wooden structures burned prior to the construction of the current building. In the church’s early days, a circuit rider led worship. Source: Jeffersonville Township Public Library
Baptisms
Baptisms Located on the Ohio River in view of downtown Louisville, Jeffersonville provided easy access to water for denominations that required baptism in a living spring. In the late 19th century, for both Black and White churches, accounts of revivals and subsequent baptism in the Ohio River frequently appeared in the local paper. Source: Jeffersonville Township Public Library Creator: The Jeffersonville Daily Evening News Date: 1886
Ohio Floods
Ohio Floods The Ohio River brings both opportunity and danger to Jeffersonville, Indiana. Records indicate that enslaved people often followed the river to freedom. Moreover, many African Americans worked on the river. Yet flooding threatens every undertaking here. The 1883 Flood, shown here overtaking Spring Street in Jeffersonville, destroyed the records of the nearby, newly built Bethel A.M.E. Source: Jeffersonville Township Public Library
Devastation: 1937
Devastation: 1937 Although the African American churches are not visible in this photo of Jeffersonville in the 1937 Great Flood, the devastating records loss the churches experienced is evident from the breadth and depth of the flood waters. Jeffersonville Township Public Library’s special collections contain a list of the locations in which 1937 Great Flood survivors sought refuge. From the list, we know that distant African American churches offered shelter to many African Americans from Jeffersonville. Source: Jeffersonville Township Public Library
Second Baptist
Second Baptist One of the earlier African American Baptist churches in Clark County and precursor to the First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church that serves Jeffersonville, Indiana, today, Second African Baptist Church, also known as Illinois Avenue Baptist, is shown on the south edge of the Claysburg neighborhood at the corner of Illinois Avenue and 8th Street in this Sanborn fire insurance map. The map notes that the church had deep eaves, stove heat, and coal oil lighting. Source: Image courtesy of the Indiana University Maps Collection
First Trinity
First Trinity First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, the successor to the now vanished Illinois Avenue Baptist Church, was built sometime around 1962, and reflects the mid century modern aesthetic popular in churches at that time. Source: Jeffersonville Township Public Library Creator: Diane Stepro Date: 2020

Location

38.2800998,-85.7260257

Metadata

Citation Info

Diane Stepro, “African American Churches in Jeffersonville, Indiana: Segregated Congregations Become Centers of Community,” Discover Indiana, accessed October 23, 2026, https://discoverindianahistory.org/items/show/564.

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