First African Baptist Church

The congregation that became First African Baptist Church traces its roots to 1773, formally constituting in December 1777 — making it a credible claim to the oldest continuously active Black Baptist church in North America, a distinction the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia affirmed in 1888, though Silver Bluff Baptist Church in South Carolina contests it. The current sanctuary, completed in 1859 and built by free African Americans and enslaved people who made the bricks themselves, was the first brick building owned by African Americans in Georgia. The drilled holes in the sanctuary floor served as air vents for people hiding beneath — and form the pattern of a Kongo cosmogram.