Second Baptist Church, the first African-American Baptist Church in Southern California, was organized on Wednesday, May 5, 1885 in Los Angeles. The church was born in the minds and hearts of early African-American Baptist who felt the need to have their own church. A church where the free expression of worship in the Black idiom could flow uninhibited. The church was begun with three members, Rev. S.C. Pierce was the organizer and the first pastor.

Dr. Griffith was instrumental in leading the membership in the building of the present church edifice. The church building was built at the estimated cost of $200,000, an enormous amount for the early 1920’s.