Dr. Benjamin Morgan Palmer who encouraged the Southern Presbyterian Church to secede at the beginning of the American Civil War, an action which was quickly imitated by most of the other Protestant denominations in the Confederate States of America.

An outstanding orator and popular pastor citywide, Larned died of yellow fever in August 1820 when only 24 years old.

He was an ardent secessionist and was influential in not only bringing Louisiana, and his native South Carolina, to secession from the Union, but also became the first moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States.

So thoroughly had he created enmity that after the Civil War, not only were black members expelled from the denomination (a sizable minority), but it would take 118 years to reunite the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches.

Benjamin Palmer and First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans later spearheaded the drive that put the graft-riddled Louisiana State Lottery out of business in the 1880s.

These were incorporated into the new church, including the organ, bell, pews, the stained-glass windows except the one in the chancel, Benjamin Palmer’s marble topped communion table and his matching lectern are still in use, the four chairs and the settee in the chancel, mill work on the rear choir loft, and several marble plaques, one a memorial to the first preacher and another listing all the pastors and their years of service.

[2] In the later part of the 20th century, First Presbyterian was successfully racially integrated by South African medical students working at nearby Tulane University, under the leadership of Dr. Wil MacIntosh, a first generation Scotsman, a civil rights proponent and a champion of inter-denominationalism.

Cliff Nunn and Elder Zane Fisher passed through ten feet of flood water around the sanctuary to survey the damage, less than two days after the catastrophe, and immediately set about the task of cleaning up and rebuilding.

[citation needed] First Presbyterian has moved from barring her doors to African Americans in the 1860s to embracing diversity on many levels, of race, gender, ability, and sexual orientation.