African Meeting House (Boston)

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The African meeting house in Boston

The African Meeting House is the oldest remaining black church building in the United States. In the 19th century, the meetinghouse was the center of the local African-American community and housed the giants of the abolitionist movement.[1]

The African Meeting House is the First African Baptist Church of Boston and was constructed in 1806 in Boston’s historic Bacon Hill. Nowadays is an exhibition of African American community organization and architecture in the founding years of the new republic and a prominent National Historic Landmark.[2]

Background

The African Meeting House is the oldest black church building still standing in the United States. Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally faced discrimination. They were given seats only on the balcony and were denied the right to vote. Thomas Paul, an African-American preacher from New Hampshire, leads a worship meeting for black people at Faneuil Hall. Mr. Paul, with his twenty members, formally formed the First African Baptist Church on August 8, 1805. That same year, the land was purchased for a building in the West End. The African Meeting House, as it is commonly known, was completed next year. Ironically, at the public inauguration on December 6, 1806, black members sat on the balconies of their new meeting house.[2]

As well as serving as a spiritual center for the community, Africa Meeting House is the head of the cultural, educational, and political relations of Boston's black community. The African School held classes in a room on the first floor of the Meeting House from 1808 to 1835, until the Abiel Smith School was built in 1834, and the school moved there. Classes returned to the chapel in 1849 when most African-Americans chose to withdraw their children from Smith School to protest against segregated education. Adult education is regularly offered in the Meeting House in the form of classes and lectures.

The Massachusetts General Colored Association, Boston's first abolitionist organization, met at the African Meeting House. In 1832, William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society there. Community celebrations often take place at the meeting house, including the annual anniversary of the Independence of Haiti (1803) and the end of the international slave trade (1807).[3]

The African Meeting House was renovated by the congregation in the 1850s. In the late 19th century, when the black community began to migrate from the West End to South End and Roxbury, the building was sold to a Jewish congregation and served as a synagogue in 1904. In 1972 the Meeting House was acquired by the African American History Museum and became a National Historic Landmark in 1974.[2]

External Link

African Meeting House, National Register of Historic Places Inventory.

References

  1. African American Meeting House. The Trust for Public Land. Retrieved January 20 2021.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 African Meeting House. Museum of African American History. Retrieved January 20 2021.
  3. African Meeting House. National Park Service December 23 2015. Retrieved January 20 2021.