Los Angeles Times: Southern Baptists Elect 1st Black President – the Rev. Fred Luter

The Rev. Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, was elected Tuesday as the first African American president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Southern Baptist Convention has elected Fred Luter as the first black president in the organization’s history. (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press / June 14, 2011)

WATCH: Fred Luter Elected as SBC President (Raw Video)

More than 160 years after its founding as a pro-slavery church, the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday elected a black pastor for the first time to lead the denomination.

SBC Annual Meeting Live Blogging of Events

6:20 p.m. — The Tuesday session ended without the vote result on the “Great Commission Baptists” descriptor known. Wright told Baptist Press the result will be announced Wednesday morning.

Baptist Press: Messengers Stand to Unanimously Affirm Fred Luter’s Election

Native New Orleanian Fred Luter was elected by acclamation Tuesday, June 19, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Pictured: After a historic election, Bryant Wright Jr. (right), outgoing president of the Southern Baptist Convention, prays with Fred Luter Jr. immediately after more than 8,000 SBC messengers unanimously elected Luter as the first African-American president of the SBC.  Photo by Kent Harville.

The Baptist Standard: Southern Baptists Elect Luter as First African-American President

One hundred sixty-seven years after forming over the right to appoint slaveholders as missionaries and 17 years after apologizing for the denomination’s racist past, the Southern Baptist Convention elected its first African-American president.

Fred Luter Jr., pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, preaches at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference. When messengers to the SBC annual meeting elected Luter as convention president, he became the first African-American to hold the office. (BP PHOTO/Bill Bangham)

Baptist Press: Luter’s Trailblazing Life Rich with Trials and Blessings

The new blue and silver Honda 360 motorcycle was mangled junk. A young Fred Luter Jr. lay in a hospital bed, his left leg broken in several places, a hole in his head.

The Times-Picayune: Rev. Fred Luter Jr. Elected as First Black President of Southern Baptist Convention

In less than five minutes, the Southern Baptist Convention Tuesday made history when it elected  by acclamation the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. of New Orleans as the first African-American president in the denomination’s 167-year history.

Pictured: Fred Luter Jr., senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans.