e house
of worship which formerly they and the whites owned as members of the
white church, wished to be organized as a separate body. This was
refused. Sampson White, therefore, organized the First Negro Baptist
Church of Washington, with persons not of the Washington white church,
and thereby secured the recognition of his church by the leading white
and Negro Baptists of Baltimore. In less than sixty days he had it in
the oldest and best known white Baptist connection in America, the
Philadelphia Baptist Association. This accomplished, Sampson White's
little group received into their body all of the Negro members of the
white church, except about twenty-three. These additional members made
this a congregation ten times the size of the original body. This
larger group, too, was in possession of the property at 19th and I
Streets, at the time that the founders received them as members, and
having been in possession of the property from the time it was sold to
the Negro members of the First Baptist Church, white, these Negro
Baptists, thereafter worshipping as the First Negro Baptist Church,
insisted that the property was theirs, while the few colored members
of the white church, who did not leave the parent body, claimed the
property as belonging to them. This led to a law suit which lasted for
years, but finally all the Negro members of the First Baptist Church,
white, cast in their lot with the members at 19th and I Streets, and
the trustees of the white church kindly released all claim in behalf
of Negro members of that body, and rendered the deed clear.[15]

The first pastorate of Sampson White was short. He was followed by
William Williams. Under his labors the membership increased almost to
two hundred. But the latter part of his incumbency was not peaceful
and William Bush, and others of the church withdrew. After casting
their lot with the white Second Baptist Church near the Navy Yard,
these seceders, along with others, were constituted the Second Negro
Baptist Church of this city, with H. Butler, a former member of the
church at 19th and I Streets, as pastor.

Following William Williams came Martin Jenkins as a supply. In 1849
Gustavus Brown became pastor, remaining for a short while. He was
succeeded by Sampson White, who, serving the congregation a second
time, remained with the church until 1853. Chauncey A. Leonard was the
next pastor, and after him Samuel M. Madden. At the close of the Civil
War, D. W.