Metropolitan AME Church

Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church began on Capitol Hill in 1821 as Israel Bethel, founded by African Americans denouncing White racism at Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church. Later, Pastor Henry McNeal Turner helped persuade President Lincoln to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1870, Israel Bethel merged with Union Bethel to become Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, the “National Cathedral of African Methodism.” This building, designed by architect Samuel T. Morsell, opened in 1886. Frederick Douglass spoke in this pulpit. Funerals for Douglass and Rosa Parks, and prayer services for President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, took place here.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States