English: Friendship Baptist Church was founded in 1866 by former slaves. The church was home to the first African-American Baptist congregation in Atlanta.

Too poor to afford a church building, the first congregants of Friendship met in a donated boxcar, which they shared as a classroom space with African-American students seeking a higher education.

Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College, now part of the largest consortium of historically black colleges and universities in the U.S., all trace their beginnings back to Friendship.

Friendship is seen as the "Mother Church" of nine other houses of worship in and around Atlanta, including Wheat Street Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, now part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic District.

The church has inspired generations of civic leaders, including Maynard Jackson, Jr., the first African-American to serve as mayor of a major southern city. Jackson moved to Atlanta in 1945, when his father, the Reverend Dr. Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Sr., was called to be the pastor at Friendship. The reverend's son grew up in the church, and at 14, enrolled at Morehouse College, where he graduated four years later. In 1973, Maynard Jackson, Jr. was elected mayor of Atlanta, and would lead the city to unprecedented success in culture and commerce.

Friendship offers a unique view of how Atlanta's historically black churches and schools played a key role in the quest for civil and human rights in America.

A landmark on the National Registry of Historic Places, Friendship Baptist Church should have been preserved and protected as a site for future generations to learn about the history of the fight for civil rights in America. Sadly, despite the efforts of Atlanta residents who held nightly vigils at the church for over a year, and circulatd a petition to the governor and city leaders to try to save this historic and beautiful house of faith in the heart of their city, Atlanta's Historic Friendship Baptist Church was demolished in 2014 to clear the land for construction of a new publicly subsidized luxurious football arena which is now referred to as the Mercedes Benz Stadium.

A short video of the history of Atlanta's Friendship Baptist Church can be viewed on the Youtube video entitled Friendship and Grace.