In the beginning, a group of enslaved Georgians came together to form what would become Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The original building where congregation members began meeting in 1847, where they came to pour out their sorrows and find solace, no longer exists. Neither does the Bethel church that made its Auburn Avenue debut in 1891 only to be later destroyed by fire.
The Big Bethel AME Church that stands today was restored in the 1920s by the Black architect J.A. Lankford and a Black builder, Alexander Hamilton. For a century, it has traversed the ups and downs of its urban placement while continuing to play a prominent role in the development and promotion of Black culture.
It’s fitting to start Black History Month by recognizing the integral role the Black church has played in shaping that history.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Black church saved Black culture when it was most in peril.
“The Black church was the cultural cauldron that Black people created to combat a system designed to crush their spirit,” wrote Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his 2021 book, “The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song.”