African Meeting House (Nantucket)

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African Meeting House in Nantucket

The African Meeting House is one of the historic structures on Nantucket. It helps to remember Nantucket's black history. The African Meeting House constructed in 1827 at 29 York Street, Nantucket, under the African Baptist Society. This Meeting House is the last remaining public structure central to the African American community of the 18th and 19th Centuries.[1]

History

In the early 19th century, churches and meetinghouses were important centers of the black community. Living in unpleasant situations and experiencing the effects of informal and legal racial discrimination, African-Americans seek to build a sense of African community, a sense of dignity, and a place. The African Baptist Society Meeting House, the center of the black community of Nantucket, became a center for black people.[2]

Built around 1825 by the African Baptist Society, this multipurpose building serves as a one-room school building for black students, who are not allowed to attend public schools.[3] For a long time, the African Meeting House was a multipurpose center. It housed the African Baptist Church and African School, and it was used as a community center for neighborhood meetings. Following years, in the 1840s to racially integrate the Nantucket Public School, the African School no longer exists, but the building continues to be a church and community center. The last religious service at the African Meeting House took place in 1910, and the building was closed as a place of worship in 1912.[4]

Vandalism in African Meeting House

In 1933, Mrs. Florence Higginbotham, an African-American who owns a house next door, purchased The Meeting House and two of its outbuildings. The Meeting House continued to be used as a social center, but after World War II, it was rented out as a garage, and later a storage warehouse and bicycle repair shop. Mrs. Higginbotham died in 1972, leaving her son, Wilhelm, the sole heir to honor her request to retain the property of the meeting house, underscoring what she acknowledges to be its historical significance. The entrepreneur who had stored his bicycle there began the research that led to it being included on the national list of historical places. His heirs sold the site to the African American history museum in 1989.[5]

Vandalism

The African Meeting House on Nantucket was vandalized with racist graffiti. The word “n—leave" and spray-painted phallic symbol on the facade of the historic site. the police considered the incident a hate crime. Community members gather together to clear graffiti from the building.[6]


References

  1. Black History on Nantucket: the African Meeting House. Nantucket Preservation Trust January 29 2018. Retrieved January 19 2021.
  2. The African Baptist Meeting House, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Retrieved January 19 2021.
  3. Here’s what to know about Nantucket’s Black history. Boston Globe May 7 2020. Retrieved January 19 2021.
  4. When was the African Meeting House at Five Corners built? Nantucket Historical Association. Retrieved January 19 2021.
  5. African Meeting House: Museum of African American History. Museum of African American History. Retrieved January 19 2021.
  6. Nantucket’s African Meeting House Vandalized with Racist Graffiti. Boston March 12 2018. Retrieved January 19 2021.