African Meeting House
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African Meeting House
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| Location | 8 Smith Court, Boston, MA |
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| Coordinates | 42°21′35.94″N 71°3′55.73″W / 42.3599833°N 71.0654806°WCoordinates: 42°21′35.94″N 71°3′55.73″W / 42.3599833°N 71.0654806°W |
| Built | 1806 |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| Part of | Beacon Hill Historic District (#66000130) |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000087 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 7, 1971 |
| Designated NHL | May 30, 1974 |
| Designated CP | October 15, 1966 |
The African Meeting House, also known variously as First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church and the Belknap Street Church, was built in 1806 and is now the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. It is located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to the African American Abiel Smith School. It is a National Historic Landmark.
Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally faced discrimination. They were assigned seats only in the balconies and were not given voting privileges.
Thomas Paul, an African-American preacher from New Hampshire, led worship meetings for blacks at Faneuil Hall. Paul, with twenty of his members, officially formed the First African Baptist Church on August 8, 1805. In the same year, land was purchased for a building. The African Meeting House, as it came to be commonly called, was completed the next year. At the public dedication on December 6, 1806, the first-floor pews were reserved for all those "benevolently disposed to the Africans," while the black members sat in the balcony of their new meeting house.
In the early 1800s, Primus Hall had established a school in his home. He sought funding from the community, including African-American sailors, to pay for expenses to run the school. Unsuccessful in attempts to establish a public school with the city of Boston in 1800, he moved his school to the African Meeting House by 1806. Hall continued fund-raising to support the African-American school until 1835.
Besides inspiring Boston's African Americans to pursue justice and quality in education, the school offered them opportunities for employment and economic growth, which in turn provided funds for future generations of African-American Bostonians to pursue higher education.
The Abiel Smith School was built in 1834 following the donation of $2,000 by Abiel Smith. The primary and grammar school was the first building built as a public school for African Americans in the country. In 1835, all black children in Boston were assigned to the Smith school, which replaced the basement school in the African Meeting House.
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