Second African Baptist Church | |
---|---|
Second Colored Church (formerly) | |
Location | 123 Houston Street Greene Square Savannah, Georgia |
Country | United States |
Denomination | Baptist |
Website | www.secondafrican.org |
History | |
Founded | December 26, 1802 |
Architecture | |
Years built | 1926 |
Administration | |
Division | National Baptist Convention, U. S. A. Inc. |
Subdivision | General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, Inc. |
Second African Baptist Church | |
Part of | Savannah Historic District (ID66000277) |
Added to NRHP | November 13, 1966 [1] |
Second African Baptist Church is a church in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located in the northwestern trust/civic block of Greene Square, at 123 Houston Street, the church was founded on December 26, 1802, [2] twenty-five years after the city's First African Baptist Church, as the First Colored Church. [3] Its first pastor was Rev. Henry Cunningham (1759–1842), who served from 1802 to 1833. [3] The church building was constructed in 1926. [4]
In 1823, the First Colored Church and Second Colored Church were renamed First African Baptist Church and Second African Baptist Church. [3]
In 1864, United States Army general William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders No. 15 just outside Savannah. A short time later, general Rufus Saxton publicly spoke to members of this church on the provisions of Sherman's offer, which became known as "forty acres and a mule." [2] Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Sherman were guests in the church following the surrender of Savannah on December 21, 1864.
Just under a century later, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" sermon here, an address he repeated in Washington, D.C., later in the year. [2]
The church is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (the second-largest Baptist organization in the world, after the Southern Baptist Convention), and the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, Inc.
Savannah is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War, Savannah is today an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport. It is Georgia's fifth most populous city, with a 2020 U.S. census population of 147,780. The Savannah metropolitan area, Georgia's third-largest, had a 2020 population of 404,798.
The Second Baptist Church, located at 441 Monroe Street within Greektown in Detroit, Michigan, is the oldest African-American church in the Midwestern United States. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The church was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1974 because of its importance in the civil rights movement and American history. In 1978 the official name was changed to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was pastor there and helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 during the civil rights era. The church is located steps away from the Alabama State Capitol.
James D. Lynch was a missionary, public official, and state legislator in the United States. He was the first African-American Secretary of State of Mississippi, and a minister.
First African Baptist Church, located in Savannah, Georgia, claims to be derived from the first black Baptist congregation in North America. While it was not officially organized until 1788, it grew from members who founded a congregation in 1773. Its claim of "first" is contested by the Silver Bluff Baptist Church, Aiken County, South Carolina (1773), and the First Baptist Church of Petersburg, Virginia, whose congregation officially organized in 1774.
The Savannah Historic District is a large urban U.S. historic district that roughly corresponds to the pre–Civil War city limits of Savannah, Georgia. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, and is one of the largest urban, community-wide historic preservation districts in the United States. The district was established in recognition of the Oglethorpe Plan, a unique model of urban planning begun in 1733 by James Oglethorpe at Savannah's founding and propagated during the first century of the city's growth.
The Green–Meldrim House is a historic house at 14 West Macon Street, on the northwest corner of Madison Square, in Savannah, Georgia. Built in 1853, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as one of the American South's finest and most lavish examples of Gothic Revival architecture. The house is owned by the adjacent St. John's Episcopal Church, which offers tours and uses it as a meeting and reception space.
The city of Savannah, Georgia, the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, was established in 1733, and was the first colonial and state capital of Georgia. It is known as Georgia's first planned city and attracts millions of visitors, who enjoy the city's architecture and historic structures such as the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, the First African Baptist Church, Congregation Mickve Israel, and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex. Today, Savannah's downtown area is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States .[A]
Augusta, Georgia was founded in 1736 as part of the British colony of Georgia, under the supervision of colony founder James Oglethorpe. It was the colony's second established town, after Savannah. Today, Augusta is the second-largest city in Georgia, and the largest city of the Central Savannah River Area.
Historic First Bryan Baptist Church is an African-American church that was organized in Savannah, Georgia, by Andrew Bryan in 1788. Considered to be the Mother Church of Black Baptists, the site was purchased in 1793 by Bryan, a former slave who had also purchased his freedom. The first structure was erected there in 1794. By 1800 the congregation was large enough to split: those at Bryan Street took the name of First African Baptist Church, and Second and Third African Baptist churches were also established. The current sanctuary of First Bryan Baptist Church was constructed in 1873.
The U.S. Customhouse is a historic custom house located in Savannah in Chatham County, Georgia. It was built to house offices of the United States Customs Service.
The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention, is a Baptist Christian denomination headquartered at the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tennessee and affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. It is also the largest predominantly and traditionally African American church in the United States and the second largest Baptist denomination in the world.
The following is a timeline of the history of Savannah, Georgia, United States.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Augusta, Georgia, USA.
The former Second Baptist Church is a historic building located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, United States. The First Colored Baptist Church of Mt. Pleasant, later Second Baptist Church, was founded in the summer of 1863 by members of First Baptist Church for the education and worship of the community's African American population. The congregation is also referred to as the "African Baptist Church". It is possible that this building was the original Methodist Episcopal church building constructed in 1843. It is believed that it was moved here in 1856 or 1857 for a newly established congregation of the Methodist Protestant Church. Either that or the main part of this small frame church was built here at that time. Regardless, the Methodist Protestant congregation did not succeed and the property was sold to First Baptist Church in January 1864 for use by the "Colored Baptist Church."
Ulysses L. Houston was a pastor and state legislator in Georgia. He was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1868, and was an influential organizer in Savannah, Georgia's African-American community during the mid-19th century.
Garrison Frazier was an African-American Baptist minister and public figure during the U.S. Civil War. He acted as spokesman for twenty African-American Baptist and Methodist ministers who met on January 12, 1865 with Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, of the Union Army's Military Division of the Mississippi, and with U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, at General Sherman's headquarters in Savannah, Georgia. This meeting is commonly known as the "Savannah Colloquy" or the "Forty acres and a mule" meeting.
Alexander Harris (1818–1909) was an African-American deacon, trustee, interim pastor of the First Bryan Baptist Church and one of the most powerful African-American religious and civil leaders in Savannah, Georgia during the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.