People, Locations, Episodes

Bethel A.M.E. Church (Atlanta) is Founded

Bethel AMEChurch, Atlanta

*Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Atlanta was founded on this date in 1847.

Known as Big Bethel A.M.E., it began in 1840 when Col. Lemuel P. Grants gave Ransom Montgomery and other Blacks property to build their place of worship. A site was selected on Jenkins Street, where the church stood until the Federals destroyed it during the American Civil War. Colonel Grant returned the site to them, but it was sold, and property on Wheat Street (later called Auburn Ave.) was then purchased.

In 1847, Bethel Tabernacle was officially founded, later called Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1879, the Gate City Colored School, the first public school for African Americans in the city, was founded in the basement of Big Bethel. In 1881, Morris Brown College was established in the basement of Big Bethel A.M.E. Church. Mary McCree was the first principal.

In 1917, a fire struck the area known as the Fourth Ward, destroying most of the area east of Boulevard. Big Bethel was the only church in the ward owned by Blacks and still standing. The church was a hub for gathering large numbers of Blacks for public meetings between 1917 and 1920. In 1920, fire struck the sanctuary; their insurance policy had expired the day before, and a tremendous debt was incurred to pay for the rebuilding. Between 1920 and 1930, John Lankford, a Black architect, restored the church from Victorian to Romanesque Revival style.

Crowning the newly rebuilt Big Bethel was a lighted cross bearing the message "Jesus Saves" on the steeple. The American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s left a distinct impression on Big Bethel. A new Black theology was flowering, and a more activist, liberation-focused church evolved.

Big Bethel is the oldest predominantly African American congregation in the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, area. Recently, under the leadership of Pastor James Davis, It has just completed a $1.8 million renovation. The church is now accessible to the physically disabled and is home to a deaf signing ministry.