First Baptist Church in Farmville was organized in 1866 as an outgrowth of the predominantly white Farmville Baptist Church. In 1949, after the death of the Rev. C.H. Griffin, the congregation unanimously called his son, L. Francis Griffin, as pastor, and he chose to serve his home church rather than accept a promising pastorate in the North. In April 1951, when 456 students at Robert R. Moton High School walked out to protest the deplorable conditions of their segregated school, the church under the Rev. L. Francis Griffin supported the student protest, with most members backing him despite some dissent. The church opened its facilities for meetings among students, faculty members, NAACP lawyers, parents, and others supporting the cause, and there parents, students, and NAACP attorneys decided to sue Prince Edward County for integrated schools. After the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka outlawed segregation in public education, Prince Edward County closed its public schools from 1959 to 1964 to avoid integration. During that struggle, the church continued to support students and the community, hosted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other nationally known civil rights leaders, and provided classes for students shut out of public schools. In 1964, Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, forced the county's public schools to reopen, helping usher in equal access to public education nationwide at great personal sacrifice to the church and its pastor.
