Established in 1880 as Haven Memorial and renamed Haven UMC in 1968, the church was completed in 1923. Clarksdale's first low-income daycare opened here in 1965 by Lilian Johnson. In 1958, Rev. Theodore Trammel and Dr. Aaron Henry hosted civil rights meetings with Dr. M.L. King, Jr. and Medgar Evers. Members of the church have included Henry Espy Jr., Clarksdale's first African American mayor, Vivian M. Presley, Mississippi's first female junior college president, and Donell Harrell, the city's first black school superintendent.
