NOTE - EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO MAY 20, 2025

At this in-depth conversation, Pastor Lou and Mrs. Jacqueline B. McElroy, Pastor and First Lady of the historic Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, the oldest African American Baptist Church in Houston, will be joined by historian of Gothic architecture Dr. Lindsay Cook to discuss the history and architecture of Antioch Church, as well as several other works of African American art and architecture that are in dialogue with Gothic architecture, in general, or Notre-Dame of Paris, specifically.

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was founded by formerly enslaved individuals in January 1866, only seven months after the end of slavery was announced in Galveston on June 19, 1865. Community leader Rev. John (Jack) Henry Yates served as the first Pastor of the church established in Freedman’s Town in Houston’s Fourth Ward. In fact, Mrs. Jacqueline McElroy is the great-great-granddaughter of Rev. Yates. Notably, the church is a UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project site and a recent recipient of a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

This church became renowned in Houston’s history on May 22, 1991, as the last stop for Queen Elizabeth on her 1991 tour of the United States.

Presented by:

Dr. Lindsay Cook, Co-Director, Consortium for Early Modern & Medieval Studies,  Penn State University

Pastor Lou McElroy and Mrs. Jackie McElroy, the Pastor and First Lady of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church

Presented at:

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church | 500 Clay St, Houston, TX 77002

Cosponsored by:

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and the Freedman’s Town Conservancy.

FREE ADMISSION