Location: At 336 W. Hill Street, Warsaw
County: Duplin
Original Date Cast: 2023
The Reverend Thomas Parker was a pioneering figure among African American Baptists in North Carolina. He was born enslaved in Gates County on October 14, 1830. From there he was carried to Fernandina, Florida, and later brought to Wilmington. At the age of thirty he was converted and baptized. He later joined the white First Baptist Church in Wilmington in 1863.
In 1864, it was decided that the Black members of First Baptist Church would employ their own minister and provide his salary. These members requested and received permission to separate from the church and construct their own house of worship. The first pastor of the new church, called the African Baptist Church, was the Reverend W. H. Banks. A dispute arose among the membership, however, and the church needed a new pastor. Thomas Parker, at that time a deacon at the church, was chosen to succeed Banks. He was ordained a pastor by the congregation of First Baptist Church, enabling him to become pastor at the African Baptist Church. After serving there for a few years, a call came for an area missionary to plant Black congregations in New Hanover, Pender, Duplin and Sampson Counties. Parker answered the call and organized several churches, including First Baptist-Kenansville, Bear Swamp Baptist Church in Warsaw (later known as First Missionary Baptist Church), Mount Gilead in Mount Olive, Hills Chapel Baptist Church in Faison, Six Runs Baptist in Turkey, North Carolina, and Easter Chapel in Goldsboro. Reverend Parker served concurrently as pastor at four of these congregations: First Baptist-Kenansville, Bear Swamp-Warsaw, Hills Chapel, and Six Runs. One source reported that over four thousand persons were converted and baptized during Reverend Parker’s ministry at these churches.
In 1870, delegates from First Baptist-Kenansville, Bear Swamp Baptist-Warsaw, Hills Chapel, and First Baptist-Clinton met formed the Kenansville Eastern Missionary Baptist Association, or KEMBA. Reverend Parker was elected as the organizations first Moderator and served in that capacity for thirty-four years. During his tenure, the association helped establish three schools for African Americans.
In 1872, a dispute arose within KEMBA over church policy: which was supreme, the individual church or the association? Reverend Parker supported the former position. His predecessor at the African Baptist Church, Reverend W. H. Banks, backed the latter position. A schism within KEMBA resulted. Reverend Banks and others of a similar mind met at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Wilmington and formed the Middle District Missionary Baptist Association. KEMBA continues to endorse the idea of church superiority today.
Reverend Parker was also a key figure in the early history of the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, founded in 1867 as the General Association of the Colored Baptists of North Carolina. Elected vice president of the convention in 1881, he also presided over its Foreign Mission Board.
Thomas Parker died on November 21, 1924. He was buried with other members of his family at Friendly Hill Cemetery (Root Pig) in Warsaw. Each October, KEMBA holds a Founders’ Day Service and a graveside ceremony in honor of Reverend Parker.
References:
E. M. Butler, updated by James H. Faison Jr., “Brief History of the Kenansville Eastern Missionary Baptist Association,” Kenansville Eastern Missionary Baptist Association website, History – Kenansville Eastern Missionary Baptist Association (kembacenter.com)
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Duplin County Alumnae Chapter, compilers, Legacies Untold: Histories of Black Churches in the Greater Duplin County Area (2002).
Duplin County Heritage Book Committee, Heritage of Duplin County North Carolina 1750-2012 (2013).
James E. Everette III, A Heritage of Hope: A History of First Baptist Church, Wilmington, North Carolina (1808-2008) (2008).
Jennifer Martin, Along the Banks of the Old Northeast: The Architectural Development of Duplin County, North Carolina (1999).
Thomas Parker to Editor, August 31, 1897, (Raleigh) Gazette, September 11, 1897.
J. A. Whitted, A History of the Negro Baptists of North Carolina (1908).