New Bethel Baptist Church (Detroit, Michigan)

New Bethel Baptist Church is a Baptist church located at 8430 C. L. Franklin Boulevard (also called Linwood Street) in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1932, the church was led by the Rev. C. L. Franklin from 1946 until 1979 and was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Detroit. Since 1982, Rev. Robert Smith, Jr., has been the pastor.

The church was founded March 6, 1932. V. L. Bolton was the first pastor and was followed by Horatius "H.H." Coleman (1932-1935), N. H. Armstrong (1935-1940) and William E. Ramsey (1940-1946).

In May, 1946, Rev. C. L. Franklin became the pastor. When Rev. Franklin became pastor, the congregation had 400 members and met in a bowling alley at Willis and Hastings. In October 1951, the church moved into a new church, built at a cost of $250,000 with a seating capacity of 2.500, at 4210 Hastings Street in Detroit.

In the 1950s, New Bethel became known for its gospel choir which had weekly radio broadcasts. Participants included Rev. Franklin, music director Thomas Shelby, and Rev. Franklin's daughter Aretha Franklin. James Cleveland served as organist and sometimes conductor in the early 1950s. In 1956, Aretha Franklin recorded her first album, Songs of Faith (also known as Spirituals), at age 14 at New Bethel.

In 1961, the church lost its Hastings Street building to construction of the Chrysler Freeway. The church, which had 4,000 members at the time, moved to the Gold Coast Theater (8210 Twelfth) for the next two years.

On March 10, 1963, the church moved to the previously-dilapidated Oriole Theater at the corner of Linwood and Philadelpia in Detroit. Detroit architect Nathan Johnson oversaw the remodeling which cost more than $500,000. The project was Detroit's "first major all-Negro building project", using an architect, contractors, and financing from the African-American community. The Detroit Free Press described the new structure as follows: "The row of glass doors at the entrance and the vast expanse of whiteness inside gives one the feeling of entering a miniature Cobo Hall." More than 2,000 persons participated in a procession of cars from the temporary home at the Gold Coast Theater to the new site. At the time, Rev. Franklin described the trip as a "trip from the valley to the mountain."

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