Organized in 1961 in Cincinnati by dissidents from the NBC who demanded term limits on leadership and active support for the Civil Rights Movement, the PNBC provided the denominational home for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and many SCLC leaders. Its founding was a direct institutional response to the NBC's conservative leadership under Joseph H. Jackson, who opposed direct action tactics. The PNBC remains headquartered in Washington, D.C., and continues to advocate for social justice from a prophetic Baptist tradition.