Save America's Treasures - Project Profile

June 1999

African Meeting House
Boston, Massachusetts

he oldest standing African American church in the U.S., the African Meeting House was built 1805-06 almost entirely by black labor with funds raised from the community. The Meeting House became a center of religious and cultural life in Boston. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass recruited the historic 54^th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at the African Meeting House and William Lloyd Garrison, a white integrationist, launched the New England Anti-Slavery Society from this building on January 6, 1832. Owned and operated by the Museum of Afro American History, a non-profit educational organization, the African Meeting House is a part of the Boston African National Park Service. It is also the last stop along Boston’s Black Heritage Trail.

Related Resources

Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the African Meeting House: Save America's Treasures Tour, Boston, Massachusetts, December 5, 1998.

Boston African-American National Historic Site: The African Meeting House is the last stop along Boston’s Black Heritage Trail.

Museum of Afro American History, Boston: A not-for-profit history institution dedicated to preserving, conserving and interpreting the contributions of African Americans during the colonial period in New England. The museum owns and operates the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill.