First African Baptist Church was built by its enslaved members

Members of this congregation built the church in front of you with their own hands. Free and enslaved people worked together, laying locally made Savannah Grey brick until the building was finished in 1859. The enslaved members did their share of the construction at night, after finishing a full day of forced labour for the people who owned them. Inside, the solid oak pews in the main sanctuary were made by enslaved church members, alongside the original pipe organ, baptismal pool, and light fittings.

The church traces its beginnings to 1773, when the Reverend George Leile organised a congregation at nearby Brampton Plantation. Leile was assisted by David George and Andrew Bryan, two enslaved men he had baptised. The congregation formally constituted in 1777. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Leile and David George escaped to freedom, but Bryan stayed behind to lead the people who remained.

On 20 January 1788, the congregation gathered in a barn where the Reverend Abraham Marshall formally recognised the church. Marshall ordained Bryan as the preacher, and 67 people joined that day. It grew into one of the oldest continuously operating African American churches in North America. The congregation eventually secured the land at 23 Montgomery Street under its third pastor, the Reverend Andrew C. Marshall.

The pulpit remained a centre for civil rights in Georgia long after slavery ended. The Reverend Emanuel K. Love, the sixth pastor, campaigned for Black education and helped found what is now Savannah State University. During the 1940s, the thirteenth pastor, the Reverend Dr Ralph Mark Gilbert, led the NAACP across Georgia and rebuilt its Savannah branch. Later leaders continued to use the sanctuary for the same work, including Adam Clayton Powell and Martin Luther King, who both spoke from this pulpit.