By Rev. Emmett G. Price III, Rev. Irene Monroe, and Ellen London

This month, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes viewers on a journey through the rich and complex evolution of The Black Church to reveal how it has influenced nearly every chapter of the African American story and continues to animate Black identity today. We spoke with Reverend Irene Monroe and Reverend Emmett G. Price III, hosts of the All Rev’d Up podcast, which explores where faith intersects politics and culture, to learn more about the history of the Black church in the Boston area and explore the legacy of the city’s historic sites.

Rev. Emmett G. Price III: Boston is a very old city with a long legacy, especially as we look at the tremendous contributions of both enslaved and free Blacks. The sites that are mentioned here are a sample of a large number of other historical spaces, all worthy of mention.

Rev. Irene Monroe: The Black Church and the story of Black life is an American story. We have been contributors to this nation and its spiritual and cultural legacy.

Price: Irene is correct! What people who engage and endeavor to experience these sacred spaces will find is a vibrant life force that goes back generations. So many generations of people, on whose shoulders we stand who looked to God for justice, equity and inclusion — in many ways, the same justice, equity and inclusion we continue to seek today.

Monroe: The Black Church is the oldest and only institution created and led by Black people. It is the one institution in this nation that has not been permeated and plagued by supremacist and racist ideologies.

Listen to a special episode of All Rev’d Up, “The Black Church: Reimagining Our Story and Our Song,” launching on Wednesday, February 24, in which the Revs discuss how we might reimagine the future of the Black church post-COVID. They will share their dreams, visions and hope as well as their fears, concerns and the challenges. Brought to you with support from The Corporation For Public Broadcasting.

Want to visit these landmarks in person? Grab your mask and your mittens for a safe and self-guided walking tour.

Black Heritage Trail

14 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108

The Black Heritage Trail takes visitors on a 1.6-mile walk through the heart of Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, showcasing private residences and community buildings associated with the Black community that lived on or near the north slope of Beacon Hill before, during, and after the Civil War. Throughout that time, this community struggled and organized for equal rights and access to equal education, championing the movement to abolish slavery and even housing freedom seekers on their journey along the Underground Railroad.

Most sites along the Black Heritage Trail remain private residences. However, the final stops — the Abiel Smith School and the African Meeting House — are part of the Museum of African American History, which is open to the public and now offering timed tickets for patrons to visit while maintaining social distance.

African Meeting House

8 Smith Ct, Boston, MA 02114

Located just steps away from the Massachusetts State House in what was the heart of Boston’s African American neighborhood throughout the 1800s, the African Meeting House was built in 1806 and is now the oldest Black church edifice still standing in the United States. Known throughout its long history variously as the First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church, and the Belknap Street Church, the African American Meeting House served as a church, a school, and a vital community meeting place. It has since been restored to its 1855 appearance, and present-day visitors can take a tour via timed tickets for entry available here.

People’s Baptist Church

830 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02118

The People’s Baptist Church in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood was originally the first African Baptist Church in the city — and now its oldest continuous congregation — having served the Black community since its organization on Beacon Hill in August 1805. According to the church’s website, its worship “is in the Black religious tradition, designed to be spiritually uplifting, intellectually challenging, and socially relevant.”

Twelfth Baptist Church

160 Warren St, Roxbury, MA 02119

The Twelfth Baptist Church, in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, was established in 1840 and is the oldest direct descendant of the African Baptist Church (now the People’s Baptist Church, above) in Beacon Hill. Throughout its long history, the church has served as a forum for champions of human rights and dignity such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas, Rev. Leonard A. Grimes, Rev. George Washington Williams, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others. From the anti-slavery movement of the 1800s through the civil rights movement and into present day, Twelfth Baptist Church has “fostered a commitment to spiritual guidance and social action to the Greater Boston community.”

Myrtle Baptist Church

21 Curve Street, West Newton, MA 02465

Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, just west of the city of Boston, was established in 1874 to serve the population of the town’s 130 Black residents, who sought a church within which to worship in their own tradition — and to sit wherever they chose, not just in the church’s rear as when attending predominantly white congregations. The church’s first pastor was Rev. Edmund Kelley, a former slave who was licensed to preach in Columbia, Tennessee in 1842 while still enslaved. After gaining his freedom, he traveled extensively, preaching and organizing churches in several states before arriving in Boston and founding Myrtle Baptist Church. After leaving Myrtle, he went on to be an important figure on the national stage, becoming one of the organizers of the American Baptist Missionary Convention in New York and also one of the Black pastors who met with both Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson.

On October 22, 1897, a fire destroyed the original Myrtle Baptist Church. Within a year, the church was rebuilt upon the same site as the original building.

Union Baptist Church

874 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

Just across the Charles River in Cambridge, Union Baptist Church had its early beginnings in prayer meetings held in the basement of Mr. and Mrs. Clayborne Underwood Miller, who lived on Hastings Street, in October 1878. Samuel O. Weems, a Cambridge historian of the early 20th century, gathered an oral history from a daughter, Mrs. Alice V. Jones, who recalled of the church’s early days: “I was a little girl when I saw a group of people meeting in our kitchen and my mother told me they were getting ready to build a Baptist church in Cambridge for the colored people.” Those kitchen prayer meetings quickly outgrew their space, moving to the cellar of Mr. James Thornton as a meeting place until the number of members swelled to more than 70. Many of the new members were of Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury (above) and relieved to have a local place of worship, instead of having to walk or travel via horse-drawn carriage across the river to Roxbury. The group secured a charter from the American Baptist Association in April 1879, and immediately named their church “Union,” believing that in union there is strength. In just three years, the church’s membership grew to approximately 300 and sufficient money was raised to build the church on its current site.

St. Paul A.M.E.

37 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139

The oldest Black church in Cambridge, St. Paul A.M.E. traces its roots back to 1870 when a small band of worshippers gathered in the living room of Bro. Buckner, affiliating shortly thereafter in 1873 with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. As the church’s membership rapidly increased, its members purchased land at the corner of Hastings and Portland Streets where construction soon began on the church’s original site. Following a population boom in the area around World War I, the building could no longer accommodate the congregation. The church was sold and the present location — formerly the Wood Memorial Church — was purchased, with parishioners marching from the original location to the new site in triumph.

St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church

1073 Tremont St, Roxbury, MA 02120

A large influx of people from the former British West Indian Islands, as well as African Americans from the southern states, to Boston and Cambridge at the turn of the twentieth century led to increased demand for membership in the area’s Episcopalian churches. However, worshippers found not only a cold reception from the predominantly white congregations, but also in many cases outright disdain. So, these Black Episcopalians decided to ban together, first meeting for worship in a private home at 218 Northampton Street in May 1910. The rapid increase in membership forced them to move to Franklin Union on Berkley Street, where services were conducted by a layreader who was a medical student studying in Boston. Following several additional relocations, many of them marred by blatant racism and cruelty toward the congregation — one church where the group was allowed to worship on Sunday evenings was discovered to have been fumigating the building after the Black parishioners left — the congregation persisted and, in July 1921, purchased a lot on Tremont Street. St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church — named after Cyprian, an outstanding theologian and Bishop of Carthage in North Africa — was officially opened for worship on February 10, 1924.

For more information and history about Black churches and historical sites throughout the Boston area, explore the African American Trail Project from Tufts University.

For more information about churches throughout the state, visit the Massachusetts Council of Churches.

Watch The Black Church here.