Museum of Afro-American History

Location: Boston Campus, 46 Joy Street, on the corner of Smith Court

Time: 10am-4pm Mon.-Sat, Labor Day to Memorial Day. Summer 10am-4pm daily.

Age appropriateness: All ages

Cost: FREE

Location: Nantucket Campus, 29 York Street, Nantucket

Hours: July and August, Tue-Sat 11am - 3pm, Sun 1–3pm. Otherwise, by appointment

Age appropriateness: All ages

Cost: FREE

The African Meeting House is the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally faced discrimination. They were assigned seats only in the balconies and were not given voting privileges.

Thomas Paul, an African American preacher from New Hampshire, led worship meetings for blacks at Faneuil Hall. Paul, with twenty of his members, officially formed the First African Baptist Church on August 8, 1805. In the same year, land was purchased for a building in the West End.

The African Meeting House, as it came to be commonly called, was completed the next year. Ironically, at the public dedication on December 6, 1806, the floor level pews were reserved for all those "benevolently disposed to the Africans," while the black members sat in the balcony of their new meeting house.