Happy Black History Month!

It’s Black History Month and at the Boston Black Church Vitality Project we’re always celebrating the legacy and contributions that faithful Black leaders and Black churches have made. Here’s a fact! Did you know that Black History Month started out as Negro History Week and was founded by Carter G. Woodson, a prolific historian and champion of Black scholarship? Dr. Woodson understood the central importance of the Black church as an active archive of Black History. In 1921, he published the History of the Negro Church. Here’s an excerpt from the Preface—

Do you know where I’m standing? This is the African Meeting House it was built in 1806 and is the oldest Black church building in the United States. It was funded completely by Black folks and a team of Black laborers and craftsmen were led by Cato Gardener, a former slave who was born in Africa. This building was not only the home of the First African Baptist Church but it was an anchor for the Black community on Beacon Hill. It served as a central meeting location, a school, a hub for organizing for abolitionists and reformists alike and even as a refuge for Africans escaping enslavement. Today, both People’s Baptist Church and Twelfth Baptist Church trace their roots back to this historic community and landmark.

In the late 19th century, the majority of Boston’s Black population was moving from the north slope of Beacon Hill and settling in the South End and Lower Roxbury. This included the congregation of the First African Baptist Church, renamed St. Paul’s Baptist Church. They had outgrown the African Meeting house and moved to this building right here, at 830 Tremont St. On the first Sunday in March 1915, the congregations of Calvary Baptist Church and Morningstar Baptist Church marched here to St. Paul’s Baptist Church, and in a unification ceremony, the three congregations merged to form Peoples Baptist Church of Boston under the pastorate of Reverend Aaron Fuller. William Monroe Trotter, wrote in Boston’s radical Black newspaper he himself founded, that People’s Baptist was “a congregation that contained some of the ablest men and women that any contemporary minister of our race has ever been called to lead in this city.” Today, People’s continues its legacy under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Wesley A. Roberts.

Do you know where I’m standing? In front of Twelfth Baptist Church, established In 1840, as a result of a split from the First African Baptist Church. The Rev. Leonard Grimes became Twelfth’s first pastor in 1848 and a leading influence in the fight against slavery in Boston. Since its founding, Twelfth Baptist Church has been the home of many notable, influential people who have made important contributions to the local and national Black community. Members like Wilhemina Crosson, one of Boston’s first African American female school teachers. In 1925, Ms. Crosson founded the Aristo Club of Boston, an organization of black professional women who studied and taught black history and awarded scholarships to black children. The Boston school system began observing Negro History Week, which would later become Black History Month, as a result of the Aristo Club's efforts.

We’re standing in front of Union Church at 485 Mass Ave in the South End. Union was established in 1818 by Rev. Samuel Snowden and was first named the May Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Union has gone through a few name and address changes but one thing that has never changed is their commitment to justice and social service ministries. Rev. Snowden was active in the abolition movement here in Boston and Union was a stop on the underground railroad. David Walker, a prolific abolitionist was a member here. He wrote an “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America” in 1829. It was the first published, sustained attack on slavery and racism by a Black man. When the church moved to this building in 1949 Mary Mecleod Bethune herself was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony. Today, the legacy continues under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Jay Williams.

The historic Charles Street AME Church located in Roxbury was organized in November 1833 on Beacon Hill by Rev. Noah Caldwell Cannon. During the pre-Civil War years, the church hosted abolitionist speakers like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison at its Anderson Street building on Beacon Hill. After the Civil War the church grew to become the largest Black church in Boston and needed a larger building. In 1876 the church bought the Charles Street Meeting House on the corner of Charles Street and Mt. Vernon Streets at the foot of Beacon Hill. This 1807 Asher Benjamin designed building had been the home of the Third Baptist Church. This building is now a part of the Boston African American National Historic Site. The church remained on Charles Street until 1939, when it moved to the former St. Ansgarius Church in Roxbury. When it moved, the church kept its historic name and continued its legacy of leadership and service in Boston.

Do you know where I’m standing? At 600 Columbus Ave, better known as the Columbus Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The AME Zion denomination is a historically Black denomination established in 1821 in New York City. Columbus Ave AMEZ was established 17 years after the official formation of the denomination in 1838 when 17 Black worshippers left the Methodist Episcopal Church because they desired to be under the spiritual leadership of their own race. In 1903, with the great migration of Black folks to the South End of Boston, the congregation purchased this building at 600 Columbus Ave, which was itself built in 1884, and is the oldest synagogue building in Massachusetts. Today, the Columbus Ave AMEZ legacy continues under the leadership of the Rev. George C. Woodruff.

Do you know where I’m standing? In front of the oldest Black church, in Cambridge, Massachusetts- St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. Over 150 years ago, in 1870, a small group of worshipers began gathering in the living room of Bro. Henry Buckner. Three years later, their small congregation was officially incorporated into the AME church. They grew and purchased land to construct a house of worship with the Rev. Dallas Turner serving as their first pastor. Henry Buckner became St. Paul’s 2nd pastor shortly after, upon his ordination. And yes, the Henry Buckner school on the next block is named after him! The early 1900s saw many Black folks migrating to New England, and with increased migration St. Paul continued its expansion. In 1920, the congregation purchased this building to accommodate their thriving ministries. Then, this street was called Austin St. But in 1974, Austin Street became the first public street in this AME district to be dedicated. It was renamed Bishop Richard Allen Drive after the founder of the AME Church. Today, St. Paul AME continues its faithful ministry under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Ellis I. Washington.

Did you know that St. Cyprian’s was the first church in Roxbury that was built by Black people? I’m standing here at 1073 Tremont St. where 100 years ago a group of Black folks, made up primarily of West Indian immigrants broke ground to build their house of worship. In the first decades of the 20th century a large number of people from the former British West Indian Islands came to Massachusetts and settled in Boston and Cambridge. While the church should have been a place of fellowship and belonging, these Black Episcopalians were met with discrimination and humilation in the predominantly white congregations that they patroned. They decided to band themselves together and begin the process of establishing a house of worship they could call their own. On Sunday, February 10, 1924 the church was opened for worship. It was named after Cyprian, the North African theologian and Bishop of Carthage.

Do you know where we’re standing? At 157 W. Springfield St, which was the home of Ebenezer Baptist Church for most of its 150 year history. Ebenezer was founded in 1871 by the Rev. Peter Randolph, who arrived in Boston in 1847 on a ship with 66 other Black men, women and children who had been enslaved in Virginia. Randolph traveled all over New England and the Southern states speaking and organizing against the evils of slavery and when he arrived back in Boston, after the civil war he found many African Americans of Southern descent living in the South End.

Ebenezer Baptist Church was founded by Randolph in 1871 and moved into this building in 1887 where it grew to a congregation of 1,200– the largest Black church in New England at the time. When gentrification took hold here in the South End during the 1980s and 90s many of Ebenezer’s parishioners moved to Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and others out of the city to Randolph, Stoughton, or the South Shore. The congregation held its last worship service here on Sunday, February 23, 2020 and has since relocated to Abington, MA, almost a full hour away. This edifice will be converted to housing, the current proposal includes a memorial to the history of Ebenezer.

Do you know where I’m standing? In front of Boston Missionary Baptist Church. Boston Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1973 by Rev. Dr. Soliny Vedrine. After the congregation rented space for several years, they purchased a former funeral home on this site, and converted it into worship space. After 11 years, they built the first new Haitian church building in New England on this same site. Today the church has many ministries including a food pantry; missions to Haiti, Bahamas, & Dominican Republic; programs for kids and young adults; and several choirs. On Sundays they have an early service in English and a later service in French and Haitian Creole.

Do you know where I’m standing? In the Haynes Gallery of the Historic Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. Since its founding, Twelfth has been the home of many significant leaders who have made important contributions to the local and national Black community. Today, we’re talking about George Washington Williams. Who was born in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania in 1849. At the age of 14 he joined the Union Army and fought in the civil war. His military career ended in 1868 and in 1870, George Washington Williams enrolled at Newton Theological Institution, where he became its first Black graduate. In 1874, Rev. Williams became the third pastor of Twelfth Baptist Church. Rev. Williams, served this congregation for two years before relocating to Washington, DC. During his lifetime, Rev. Williams made important contributions as a Baptist minister, politician, lawyer and lecturer. His most prolific contributions were as a historian- by writing and publishing, the History of the Negro Race in America 1619 to 1880. This1882, publication is widely accepted as the first history of African Americans.

To read more about George Washington Williams and the pastoral legacy of Twelfth Baptist Church, visit: tbcboston.org