Organized in 1866 and founded in 1875, the congregation was led for many years by Dr. Augustus Shepard, father of NCCU founder Dr. James E. Shepard. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the congregation February 16, 1960, with a history-making "Fill up the jails" civil-rights speech, following the famous Woolworth sit-in eight days earlier. The congregation moved to its current building in 1977.
