Churchgoers celebrate reconstruction of one of the oldest Black churches in the US
The reconstruction of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches, where congregants gathered in secret before building a meeting house in Virginia, was celebrated Friday.Hundreds of residents gathered for a community-wide re-dedication of the original First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, which was established in 1776 by enslaved and free African Americans in defiance of laws that prevented them from congregating.In 1805, its original parishioners built the church house, known as the African Baptist Meeting House, with recycled bricks and materials they scrounged.A tornado in 1834 destroyed the church, which was rebuilt in 1856 before it was turned into a parking lot a century later by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum, because it didn’t match the 18th century aesthetic of the town at the time.Since then, the 16-foot by 32-foot church has been reconstructed, after archaeologists in 2021 uncovered the church’s original foundation, as well as 62 graves linked to the congregation.“What this day means and shows is that Black history is American history, and we’re an example for the rest of the nation,” Reginald F.
Davis, pastor of First Baptist, told The Associated Press on Friday.“A church that has a history that was during the signing of the Declaration of Independence, you cannot erase us out of American history because we have been at the outset and formulation of the nation,” said Davis, who leads the current 215-member congregation in a 20th century church on Scotland Street, less than a mile from the original site.For decades, Colonial Williamsburg didn’t tell the story of the church’s history as a pioneer of Black American faith traditions.More than half of the 2,000 people who lived in Williamsburg in the 18th century were Black, with few of them free.
But in recent years, the museum has resuscitated the church’s traditions, starting with Friday’s celebration of the building’s 250th anniversary.“I wanted ...