Big Bethel A.M.E. Church

Big Bethel A.M.E. Church, along with Wheat Street Baptist and Ebenezer Baptist on Auburn Avenue, served both as a place of worship and as a center of political, economic, and social activity. Founded during the 1840s by slaves and free Blacks, Bethel is Atlanta's oldest African American church. Its congregation affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1865 and moved to this site in 1867 under Pastor Wesley Gaines. Since the 1870s, Big Bethel has hosted civil rights rallies, businessmen's meetings, graduations, concerts, and holiday parties. Since 1930, annual performances of the play “Heaven Bound” have drawn crowds to the church. In 1990, Nelson Mandela spoke from the same pulpit where President William Taft had appeared a century earlier.

Atlanta, Georgia · United States