Also known as "Mother Emanuel," the church was established in 1818 under the leadership of Reverend Morris Brown. Brown was a free African American and a member of the Methodist Church in Charleston, but due to racial segregation he established Mother Emanuel as a church for persons of color. 4000 African Americans followed him and became the congregation of Emanuel AME Church.
In 1822, Denmark Vesey, who had bought his own freedom and tried futilely to purchase the freedom of his enslaved family, planned a slave uprising in Charleston. Ultimately, his plan was revealed to white authorities. The uprising never occurred and Vesey was caught and executed. In addition, Mother Emanuel was investigated by the authorities to discover if the church and congregation had had any role in the conspiracy, since Vesey had been a founding member. Reverend Brown was also investigated but not convicted; instead, he was banished north to Philadelphia where he took over as Reverend for AME Bethel Church. White supremacists burned Mother Emanuel.
Mother Emanuel was rebuilt but the congregation could not return because in the 1830s, all-black churches were banned. Despite the ban, services continued but were conducted in secret until the end of the American Civil War. On August 31, 1886, the church was destroyed again but this time the cause was an earthquake. It was rebuilt as a brick structure, rather than wooden, and was completed by 1891.
During the Civil Rights Movement, both Dr. King and Coretta Scott King visited Mother Emanuel and urged the congregation to become involved.
Mother Emanuel is the oldest AME Church in the South and has the oldest black congregation south of Baltimore. Mother Emanuel's history is intertwined with the African American struggle to gain equality. Violence towards African Americans for racial reasons illustrates that the end of white male supremacy is inevitable; thus, their acts of terror, hatred and fear.
Today, President Obama spoke about the shooting and offered his condolences: "Mother Emanuel Church and its congregation have risen before from flames, from an earthquake, from other dark times to give hope to generations of Charlestonians, and with our prayer and our love and the buoyancy of hope, it will rise again now as a place of peace."
Please keep the victims of the shooting and the members of Mother Emanuel in your heart during this time of pain and healing.
Well said! Shouldn't it be unconstitutional to ban a congregation from meeting regardless of race? Oh the irony of those times.
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