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| Big Bethel AME Church | |
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 Big Bethel AME Church seen across Auburn Ave. in 2012 | |
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| Location | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Black church |
| History | |
| Founded | 1847 |
The Big Bethel AME Church a black church on Sweet Auburn in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. [1]
The Big Bethel AME Church was founded in 1847 as Union Church in Marthasville, Georgia. They changed their name to Union Church then to Big Bethel AME Church, then Bethel Tabernacle.[ citation needed ] At the close of the Civil War, the church spread throughout the former Confederacy, and the Bethel Tabernacle allied with the denomination, becoming Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Its first pastor was Reverend Joseph Woods. [1]
In 1879, the first public school for blacks in Atlanta, Gate City Colored School, was founded in the basement of the church, though it would later move to Houston Street.[ citation needed ] Morris Brown College held its first classes in the church in 1881 before moving to its first campus. Big Bethel was known as "Sweet Auburn's City Hall."
In 1911, President William Howard Taft spoke in the church, as did Nelson Mandela in 1990. [1]
During the 1960s, the church served as the annual meeting place for the Atlanta Negro Voters League. [2]
The morality play Heaven Bound was written by attendees and is performed annually at the church. [3]
The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836, when Georgia decided to build a railroad to the U.S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus. The stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837. In 1839, homes and a store were built there and the settlement grew. Between 1845 and 1854, rail lines arrived from four different directions, and the rapidly growing town quickly became the rail hub for the entire Southern United States. During the American Civil War, Atlanta, as a distribution hub, became the target of a major Union campaign, and in 1864, Union William Sherman's troops set on fire and destroyed the city's assets and buildings, save churches and hospitals. After the war, the population grew rapidly, as did manufacturing, while the city retained its role as a rail hub. Coca-Cola was launched here in 1886 and grew into an Atlanta-based world empire. Electric streetcars arrived in 1889, and the city added new "streetcar suburbs".
The Sweet Auburn Historic District is a historic African-American neighborhood along and surrounding Auburn Avenue, east of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The name Sweet Auburn was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, referring to the "richest Negro street in the world," one of the largest concentrations of African-American businesses in the United States.
John Wesley Dobbs was an African-American civic and political leader in Atlanta, Georgia. He was often referred to as the unofficial "mayor" of Sweet Auburn, the spine of the black community in the city.
The Allen Temple AME Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, US, is the mother church of the Third Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest operating black church in Cincinnati and the largest church of the Third Episcopal District of the AME Church.
John A. Lankford, American architect. He was the first professionally licensed African American architect in Virginia in 1922 and in the District of Columbia in 1924. He has been regarded as the "dean of black architecture".
The 1973 Atlanta mayoral election was held on October 16, 1973, in Atlanta, Georgia. Vice Mayor Maynard Jackson was elected as the city's first African-American mayor, defeating incumbent Mayor Sam Massell.
South Atlanta is an officially defined neighborhood of the city of Atlanta within the city's south side. It is bounded on the northeast by the railroad and the Chosewood Park neighborhood; on the northwest by the railroad and the BeltLine and the Peoplestown neighborhood, on the west by High Point and the Villages at Carver, and on the south mostly by Turman Street and the Lakewood Heights neighborhood.
Henry McNeal Turner was an American minister, politician, and the 12th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). After the American Civil War, he worked to establish new A.M.E. congregations among African Americans in Georgia. Born free in South Carolina, Turner learned to read and write and became a Methodist preacher. He joined the AME Church in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1858, where he became a minister. Founded by free blacks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the early 19th century, the A.M.E. Church was the first independent black denomination in the United States. Later Turner had pastorates in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
Black Atlantans form a major population group in the Atlanta metropolitan area, encompassing both those of African-American ancestry as well as those of recent Caribbean or African origin. Atlanta has long been known as a center of black entrepreneurship, higher education, political power and culture; a cradle of the Civil Rights Movement.
The APEX Museum is a museum of history presented from the black perspective. It is located on Auburn Avenue in the Sweet Auburn historic district of Atlanta, Georgia.
Wheat Street Baptist Church is a historic black Baptist church located in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1869, the current building was constructed in 1921 and is located adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park. The church is notable for the role it played in the Civil Rights Movement, especially under the leadership of William Holmes Borders, who served as pastor of the church from 1937 to 1988.
Rev. Richard Henry Singleton led the Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He began his service to the church in 1893 and started at Big Bethel in 1916. He was trustee of Morris Brown University and president of the local chapter of the NAACP.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History is a special library within the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. It is in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Historic District. The Auburn Avenue Research Library opened in 1994 as the first library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections for the study and research of African American culture and history and of other peoples of African descent. Its collection was housed at other libraries and became known as the Samuel W. Williams Collection on Black America. The library re-opened in 2016 after being closed for about two years during a $20 million renovation.
Carrie Steele Logan was an American philanthropist, founder of the oldest black orphanage in the United States. The home, The Colored Orphanage of Atlanta, was officially dedicated on June 20, 1892.
Ransom Montgomery was an American slave, the only slave owned by the state of Georgia, and the second black person to own property in Atlanta.
Heaven Bound is a morality play staged annually at the Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Heaven Bound or Heavenbound may refer to:
The Atlanta Negro Voters League (ANVL) was an American bipartisan governmental organization. The organization was formed in 1949 by Democrat A. T. Walden, and Republican John Wesley Dobbs. The organization was created after the lynching of Robert Mallard. The organization’s goal was to increase the strength of the Black vote; they did this by performing sit-ins on historically Black colleges and universities.